We are a nation of inventors.Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, the Wright Brothers, Dr. Temple Grandin, George Eastman and Elon Musk are just a few individuals in a massive catalog of creative makers who have used the inspiration of the innovative culture of the United States to advance technology. At the same time, government research has pushed the fundamental, but not-yet-commercialside of research in an incredibly important way, and at the core of that is NASA. For more than fifty years, NASA hastransferred its cutting-edge technologies to the private sector, helping create new commercial products, improve existing products and boost the competitiveness of the U.S. economy.

It isnt just a one-way street, though; NASA is increasingly reaching out to individuals and organizations outside of the agency to apply their own inventive initiative to further technology needed to enable the next steps required to execute NASAs goals in space exploration and aeronautics.

In order to accomplish great things, NASA has always needed partners in industry and academia. But notable accomplishments do not only come from big moonshots and Mars landings. Some amazing technology developments can be found in very small packages, like projects from NASA's AmesResearch Center, includingPhoneSatand the upcomingEdison Demonstration of Smallsat Networksmissions, in which engineers use commercialoff-the-shelf smartphones as the motherboard to operate mini cube-shaped research satellitesor CubeSats.

Each single CubeSat is approximately four inches in length, width and height, and weighs 3 pounds. Small satellites are an interesting development in space exploration because of their low cost and relatively easy access to space.Typically CubeSats hitch a ride on launches that have some leftover weight and volume capacity in addition to the primary payload flying.

Ames, located in Californias Silicon Valley, is recognized as a major contributor to the small satellite community through projects like PhoneSat.As such, Ames was a natural organization to issue a challenge to the nation to incentivize development of CubeSat capabilities. In November 2014, NASA announced that Ames will manage a competition called theCube Quest Challengeunder the agencys series ofCentennial Challenges.

The Centennial Challenges program drives innovations in aerospace technology through collaborative teams of citizen-inventors, universitiesand industry participation; increases communication through public forum and results-oriented competitions; andfosters economic productivity and opportunity through new or expanded business development.There have been 24 Centennial Challenges events since 2005. NASA has awarded more than $6 million to 16 challenge-winning teams in competitions such as the Sample Return Robot Challenge, the Strong Tether Challengeand the Moon ROx Challenge.

For the Cube Quest Challenge, teams must design, develop and deliver a small spacecraft the volume of six combined single CubeSat unitsthat can catch a ride to lunar orbit or further in deep space, and then rapidly transfer large data volumes from itself to Earth, while surviving the extended duration in space.

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NASA Seeks Inventors for Its Upcoming Cube Quest Challenge