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NASA IPP Activities in the News

NASA-Developed Fiber-Optic Transceiver is Now Commercially Available
When NASA went looking for a way to collect accurate data from propulsion tests, the system developed not only provided a safe solution, it also had the opportunity to work with a local company. Omni Technologies, Inc., of New Orleans, La., worked with NASA Stennis Space Center on the co-development of, and most recently the license to market, the FOTR-125—a redundant fiber-optic transceiver for the remote transmission of high-speed digital data.

As NASA’s lead center for rocket propulsion testing, Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi has always faced the dilemma of collecting accurate data from the inherent hostile environment of rocket engine tests. Remote recording of high-speed digital data has been impossible due to various technological and bandwidth constraints.

NASA had two options for data collection: 1) transmit the analog signals from a test stand to a safe location over long copper cables, chancing the signals becoming corrupt through pickup of electromagnetic noise from the environment; or 2) tape record the analog signal on the test stand and transport the tapes to a safe location for processing, thus requiring extra time to digitize the data after tests. The ideal solution would be to digitize the analog signal on the test stand, then immediately transmit this digital data for recording in a safe location.

To solve the problem of remote recording of digital data, NASA Test Operations at Stennis and Omni developed a 125-megabit-per-second fiber-optic transceiver. The fiber-optic transceiver was designed as a cost-effective solution for long-distance, duplex data communications between the Storeplex Tape Transport Unit (TTU) and Signal Processing Unit (SPU) of Racal Recorders, Inc. The fiber link allows a user to separate the TTU and SPU over greater distances. Each FOTR-125 accepts Racal’s standard interface as input and provides Racal’s standard interface as output. The fiber-optic link can be as long as 25 km (15.54 miles), much longer than the standard coaxial link, which can be no longer than 50 meters (164 feet).

 "Stennis needed a method to extend this transmission distance and converting the existing copper communications interface to fiber optic was the obvious solution," said Joey Kirkpatrick, a NASA engineer at Stennis and co-developer of the FOTR-125. "Omni was selected for this effort because of their depth of experience and expertise with similar fiber optic applications."

Through the Technology Transfer Office at Stennis, Omni was granted the exclusive license to commercialize the FOTR-125. Omni plans to market the FOTR-125 to other facilities that perform extremely hazardous testing, such as explosives, ordinance, nuclear, rocket engines, and some combustion turbine engines.

Currently, NASA is using the transceiver in Stennis' High-Speed Data Acquisition System (HSDAS). The HSDAS consists of several identical systems installed on the Center's test stands to take all high-speed data related to its propulsion test programs. These transceivers allow the recorder and HSDAS controls to be located in the Test Control Center in a remote location while the digitizer is located on the test stand.

"The technical challenges and compressed scheduling made for a very interesting project. For a small company such as Omni, the opportunity to work with NASA and provide a solution to one of their problems has been exciting and satisfying," said Sean Griffin, vice president of Omni, "This new relationship with NASA has also provided our company with many new opportunities."

The use of the transceivers in the HSDAS provides a more reliable, capable, and flexible high-frequency data system than previously achievable. It is also more compact and portable than existing systems. "These transceivers are a key component in the HSDAS and have proven to be an extremely reliable and robust solution. This technology has allowed us to provide a high-speed data capability that is truly state-of-the-art," Kirkpatrick said.

For government applications, the use of the transceivers at the Center will grow over the next few years as incremental upgrades to HSDAS take place. The transceivers are already a key component in the design of a follow-up Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) data system that will be used to monitor high-speed engine test data to detect and prevent engine anomalies and failures and further reduce rocket engine development costs. Current use of the FOTR-125 will save over $3.5 million per year of operation over the current high-frequency analog data systems in use.

"The goal of Technology Transfer Office at NASA is to find commercial use of a technology that has also met Agency mission requirements. The FOTR-125 could prove to be a textbook example of technology transfer. With the unique capabilities this technology provides, we expect good commercial success within a short time frame," said Kirk Sharp, NASA Technology Transfer Officer at Stennis Space Center.

For more information about the FOTR-125, contact Omni Technologies, Inc., at (504) 228-8211.

For more information on the Innovative Partnership Program at Stennis Space Center, call (228) 688-1929, or access the web site at http://technology.ssc.nasa.gov. Images are available to accompany this release.