Description: The principal objective of this Phase I SBIR is to advance the TRL of our ExoCam 360° camera system by operating it in a relevant vacuum environment that will accurately simulate an active PSI ground test event (a rocket engine firing into a surface of lunar regolith simulant) within NASA Langley Research Center's (LaRC) new 60-ft Vacuum Sphere Test Facility, designed to emulate conditions of an actual landing on the Moon as closely as possible. Specifically, we will be researching and ultimately testing a high-resolution, high framerate, 360° field of view (FOV) commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) color video camera in vacuum chamber at Honeybee Robotics Altadena lab facility. This will including thermal conditioning, satisfactory environmental isolation, and after-market custom avionics developments necessary to actuate "record" mode on the camera for a predetermined length of time, actionable by a wired "GO" signal similar to what would be provided by the LaRC test chamber during the engine fire test. All this development is in preparation for ultimately capturing a rocket engine firing into the surface of lunar regolith simulant at a new NASA Langley Vacuum Sphere government test facility (still under construction). Although a terrestrial test, this set of test conditions will emulate the conditions of a lunar lander landing on the surface of the Moon, and verifying our camera functionality in a relevant test environment ahead of time will allow our team to be ideally prepared for the first opportunity to test in the LaRC facility, and advance not only TRL but also our development timeline for inclusion on upcoming Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) flight opportunities. TRL for this system is anticipated to advance from 2-4 via initial testing in these relevant conditions.

Benefits: A central point of this proposal and the Lunar ExoCam concept is that there is still relatively little direct data about the relative speed, hazards, and general effects of regolith plumes on the lunar surface during a lander descent phase. To our knowledge this is the first instrumentation proposed for directly capturing these data in situ, from within the body of the plume expanding from below a lunar lander, and with ability to have that instrument emplaced prior to and throughout the full envelope of plume migration during the landing event. NASA states "The ability to predict the extent to which regolith is liberated and transported in the vicinity of the lander is critical to understanding the risks posed by these PSI environments' effects and for safe and reliable vehicle performance assessment. Knowledge of the surface erosion and characteristics, behavior, and trajectories of ejected particles during the landing phase is important for designing effective sensor systems and PSI risk mitigation approaches. Mission applications include lunar and planetary destinations, robotic and crewed landers, and pulsed and throttled propulsion systems". Our ExoCam technology clearly addresses this goal.In addition to NASA's plans to purchase services for lunar payload delivery through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract, the CLPS providers themselves have expressed interest in our ExoCam payload for the visual benefits it can provide. A similar (recent) example is illustrated by the Embry-Riddle EagleCam system, developed concurrently with our ExoCam but with differences in their technical approach. That system was developed to both capture imagery from the lunar surface (during descent) as well as provide a platform for scientific exploration through a technological demonstration of an electrodynamic dust shield applied to their camera lenses. At time of this authorship, data is still forthcoming as to whether or not they succeeded, but the case has clearly been made for the market opportunity for remotely ejectable payload services such as ExoCam and EagleCam. These data have great opportunities in both scientific and particularly the commercial sectors, involving the exclusivity of media rights to that valuable footage.