Description: A commercial source is needed for software-defined near-Earth transceivers (SD-NESTs) that: (1) interoperate with existing SN relays and NEN ground terminals and services; (2) are compliant with the NASA's Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) architecture standard for software defined radios (SDRs); and (3) help NASA missions and other government agencies (OGAs) transition to the future near Earth space communications infrastructure where connectivity, availability and bandwidth on demand will be as ubiquitous as today's Internet. To date, no standard user spacecraft communications transmitter/receiver (transceiver) exists that allows a space mission to interoperate with the full range of communications services available from NASA's Space Network (SN) TDRSS relays and Near Earth Network (NEN) ground terminals in the near Earth environment. In fact, even the high capacity communications single access capabilities of the SN in Ka-band are underutilized due in part to lack of affordable space-qualified transceivers. In order to achieve the potential benefits of a common SD-NEST that can be used by a wide range of near-Earth missions, Space Micro's Universal Transmit and Receive (UTR) RF module developed under a Phase II contract needs to be refined for operation in the exact frequency spectrum allocations of the SN and NEN. Then, the UTR RF module needs to be integrated with the best capabilities of Space Micro's existing commercial transmitter (e.g. uTx-300 Ka-Band Transmitter), receiver, and signal processing SDR products into an integrated SD-NEST. The advancement of the SBIR Phase II UTR RF front end integrated with the remaining transceiver aspects and verified for compliance with NASA's space networks will provide the greatest benefit to NASA, namely, a single, integrated transceiver product ready for mission use. Expected benefits and associated technology maturation efforts include the following: * New capabilities: Refine and integrate the first commercially available space-qualifiable software defined transceiver that can operate with the S- and Ka-band capabilities of the SN and NEN, with open waveforms compliant with the STRS standard. *Improved performance: Advance the technical performance of the SD-NEST to be able to operate at data rates at least 4x to 10x higher than current NASA mission transceivers in the same frequency bandwidth. *Greater reliability: Ensure that the SD-NEST can operation with the SN in both S-, and Ka-bands and with the NEN in S- and Ka-band, thus offering more operational options to missions and improving communications reliability. *Cost savings: Implement the SD-NEST in compliance with NASA�s STRS Standard for software defined transceivers to enable both proprietary commercial innovations and use of a common set of waveforms developed by others. This allows NASA missions to save on custom software and hardware development, and multiple missions to use the same transceivers and software. *Space qualification: The SD-NEST space proto-flight unit developed under Option #2 will undergo environmental (i.e. vibe, thermal) testing at Space Micro and compatibility testing with TDRS at GRC. This will provide a high TRL and high confidence SD-NEST for future mission use. *Use beyond NASA: Ultimately, the SD-NEST can be used by multiple NASA missions, those of OGAs, and potentially commercial space ventures like Lockheed Martin and SpaceX as well. The potential return on investment of the proposed SD-NEST is significantly increased use of the Ka-band capabilities of the existing TDRS relays and emerging NEN ground terminals by NASA missions and OGAs. The SD-NEST also becomes a solid building block that will help NASA transition from its current infrastructure to the future Internet-like near-Earth communications architecture. It is expected that the STMP will provide the first integrated S-band and Ka-band software defined transceiver that works with both the TDRSS Space Network and Near Earth Network ground terminals. The flexible RF front end module from Phase II coupled with the advanced SDR capabilities incorporated into the SD-NEST give NASA missions the ability to use the full capabilities of Ka-band for significantly higher data return. There are three phases for the proposed STMP, a base year and two option years. It is expected that SBIR/STTR CRP will match committed GRC SCaN Technology Program funding for the base and first option years. The second option year is expected to have external commercial funding that would be matched by the SBIR/STTR CRP. The expected outcomes of the base year are: the NEST Requirements including compatibility with SN and NEN infrastructure and the NASA STRS standard; a preliminary design review (PDR) for the SD-NEST; a breadboard of the critical signal processing functions; and a critical design review for an engineering model to be developed in the first option year. While these are necessary steps toward maturation of the individual components of the NEST, they are insufficient to commercialize the integrated SD-NEST product and ensure its compatibility with the NASA SN and NEN infrastructure. The first Option year is expected to provide an engineering model of the NEST and all the documentation required for a successful manufacturing readiness review (MRR). The delivered EM model SD-NEST will be at TRL 5 and MRL 6. It can be used directly by GRC for ground based testing and demos, software waveform development and cognitive systems development. The data package from the MRR should be sufficient for Space Micro to produce a proto-flight model alone. The second Option is expected to provide the first proto-flight unit and associated testing sufficient for a mission to infuse the capability into a flight model. While the TRL remains at 6 until the SD-NEST is flown in space, this extra commercialization phase is expected to raise the MRL to 8. This would be considered a complete success for the SBIR/STTR CRP. Note that Space Micro and NASA GRC both expect that an external commercial sponsor, most likely Lockheed Martin, will commit funding toward the Option 2 development of the proto-flight unit because of its applicability to a range of NASA and other government agency missions.