NASA has completed its first TechLeap Prize, which saw three research teams fly their payloads on a high-altitude balloon for 12 days to test technologies that could improve autonomous observation capabilities for small spacecraft. The payloads were selected through the TechLeap Autonomous Observation Challenge No. 1, which asked teams to develop technologies to autonomously detect, locate, track and collect data on short-lived events, such as wildfires, unique aerosol dispersions like dust and steam plumes, or events on other planetary bodies such as geysers on the icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter. The teams were the SEAK Lab at Texas A and M University in College Station; Bronco Space at Cal Poly Pomona in California; and Orion Labs, a small applied robotic research institution in Nunn, Colorado. The flight launched from Hurley, South Dakota, on May 24 on a high-altitude balloon from Sioux Falls-based Aerostar. The teams worked collaboratively while integrating their payloads for the flight, helping each other solve various technical issues prior to launch.
