NanoRacks

NanoRacks

Industry	Aerospace
Founded	2009 (2009)
Number of locations	5 (4 are terrestrial, 1 is lab space on ISS in low-Earth orbit)
Key people	Jeffrey Manber, Mike Johnson, Richard Pournelle, Chris Cummins, Richard Gruver, Mike Lewis, Marcia Blount, Carl Carruthers
Services	in-space services; small satellite launch services; CubeSat launch services; microgravity payload integration
Number of employees	approximately 50
Website	nanoracks.com

NanoRacks LLC is a private company that develops products and offers services for the commercial utilization of space.^[1] NanoRacks hosts a CubeSat Deployer and equipment for experiments on the International Space Station (ISS). NanoRacks services include reviewing space payloads to ensure they meet NASA's safety and other technical requirements.^[2] In July 2015, NanoRacks announced an agreement with Blue Origin to offer business development services for the Blue Shepard New Shepard Suborbital Vehicle.^[3] In August 2016, the NanoRacks-led Ixion Initiative Team, which also includes Space Systems Loral and United Launch Alliance, was selected as one of NASA's NextSTEP-2 partnerships to conduct a comprehensive feasiblity study on repurposing rocket upper stages into commercial space station habitats.^[4][5]

NanoRacks’ main office is in Houston, Texas, alongside the NASA Johnson Space Center. The business development office is in Washington, D.C., and additional offices are located in Silicon Valley and Europe.^[6][7] NanoRacks provides tools, hardware and services that allow other companies, organizations and governments to conduct research and other projects in space.

NanoRacks facilities on the U.S. National Lab on the ISS include NanoLab research modules, a centrifuge, a plate reader, and MixStix mixing enclosures.^[8]

NanoRacks partners with the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, along with the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education.^[9]

NanoRacks customers include the European Space Agency (ESA), the German Space Agency (DLR), NASA, US Government Agencies, Planet Labs, Urthecast, Space Florida, NCESSE, Virgin Galactic, pharmaceutical drug companies, and organizations in Vietnam, UK, Romania and Israel.^[3]

NanoRacks is part of XO Markets, a holding company for commercial space exploration.^[10]

History

(25 Feb. 2014) -- A set of CubeSats is deployed by the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer attached to the end of the Japanese robotic arm on the International Space Station

NanoRacks was founded in 2009 by Jeffrey Manber, Mike Johnson^[11] and Charles Miller^[12][13][14] to provide commercial hardware and services for the U.S. National Laboratory on board the International Space Station via a Space Act Agreement with NASA. NanoRacks signed their first contract with NASA in September 2009 and had their first laboratory on the Space Station in April 2010.^[15]

As of August 2015, over 300 payloads have been deployed by NanoRacks to the International Space Station.^[16]

As of June 2015, NanoRacks has deployed 64 satellites into Lower Earth Orbit, and had 16 satellites on the ISS awaiting deployment, with an order backlog of 99.^[17]

In 2012, NanoRacks "generated more than $3 million in revenue, of which only one-quarter comes from NASA."^[18]

In August 2012, NanoRacks partnered with Space Florida to host the Space Florida International Space Station (ISS) Research Competition.^[19] As part of this program, NanoRacks and DreamUp provide research NanoLab box units to fly payloads to the ISS, with scientific research to be conducted on board the U.S. National Lab.^[20]

In October 2013, NanoRacks became the first company to coordinate the deployment of small satellites from the ISS via the airlock in the Japanese KIBO module. This deployment was done by NanoRacks using the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD).^[21]

The NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer was launched on January 9, 2014, on the Orbital Sciences Cygnus Orb-1 Mission.^[22] It became the first commercial platform to deploy satellites from the ISS.

In December 2014, DreamUp.org, the website for the educational arm of NanoRacks, was launched.^[23] DreamUp offers world-class, low-cost access to commercial research platforms in suborbital and low-Earth orbit. The DreamUp Advisory Board, made up of industry experts Ken Shields, Jeffrey Manber, and Mike Johnson, assigns ‘DreamUp Approved’ status to projects declared realistic, doable, and in accordance with standard safety criteria. Through partnerships with organizations such as SSEP and Valley Christian High School, NanoRacks and DreamUp have helped launch dozens of student experiments to space and immerse hundreds of students in the space research experience.

In July 2015, NanoRacks announced it was teaming with Blue Origin to provide standardized, commercial payload accommodation services on Blue Origin’s New Shepard Suborbital Vehicle. NanoRacks provides services such as payload design and development, safety approvals, and integration for suborbital research payloads.^[3][24]

In August 2015, NanoRacks announced a historic agreement to fly a Chinese DNA experiment from the Beijing Institute of Technology on the International Space Station. The agreement includes NanoRacks delivering the experiment to the American side of the ISS in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and berthing the experiment to NanoRacks’ orbiting laboratory facilities. NanoRacks will then send data back to the Chinese researchers.^[25]

In August 2015, the NanoRacks External Payload Platform (NREP) was successfully launched to the ISS on the fifth flight of the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV). The external platform will be able to accommodate up to 9 4U CubeSat-size payloads outside of the space station with a standard mission duration of 15 weeks. The platform is operational as of August 2016.^[26][27]

In August 2015, Space Angels Network joined with NanoRacks and DreamUp to support and invest in STEM education and early stage-space companies by using the DreamUp Approved system.^[28]

Facilities and labs

Internal ISS Services

NanoRacks facilities on the International Space Station (ISS) include:

• NanoRacks MixStix - 2U NanoLab research modules are dedicated to provide housing for up to twenty four individual Fluids Mixing Enclosures (MixStix) allowing all microgravity reactions and materials to be captured for analysis on the International Space Station or returned to Earth via the Soyuz.^[29]
• NanoRacks Microscope-3 – The third generation NanoRacks microscope system is a hand-held USB digital microscope with 20-240X magnification that creates 5MP pictures or video. Seven white LEDs provide lighting and the scope has a polarizing filter to reduce glare. Microscope-3 can also be mounted to its XY translation stage for extra stability. Two microplate holders can accommodate low profile microplates. The microplate holders are black or white for the specific research background required.^[30]
• NanoRacks Centrifuge – can simulate gravity on the Moon or Mars as well as provide standard laboratory centrifuge capabilities^[18]
• NanoRacks Platforms – include both standard space-capable lab racks to provide power and data transfer capabilities as well as CubeLabs Modules experimental platforms. Several standard rack sizes are available to accommodate nanoscale research in microgravity experiments that require various amounts of rack volume.^[31]
• NanoRacks Plate Reader-2 – a Molecular Devices SpectraMax M5e modified for space flight and the microgravity environment. This spectrophotometer analyzes samples by shining light (200-1000 nm) either on or through the top or bottom of each sample in the well of a microplate. The NanoRacks Plate Reader-2 can accommodate cuvettes in special microplate holders as well as 6-, 12-, 24-, 48-, 96-, and 384-well microplates. It can operate in absorbance, fluorescence intensity, or fluorescence polarization modes.^{[32] [33]}

Lab space on the ISS is provided to NanoRacks by NASA under a contractual lease arrangement.^[34]

External ISS Services

NanoRacks deploys small CubeSats into orbit from the ISS through the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer via the airlock in the Japanese Kibo module, after the satellites are transported to the ISS on a cargo spacecraft. When released, the small satellites are provided a push of about 1 meter per second (3.3 ft/s) that begins a slow process of satellite separation from the ISS.^[34]

The NanoRacks External Platform (NREP) was successfully installed in August 2016. The self-funded NREP is the first-ever commercial gateway-and-return to the extreme environment of space. Following the CubeSat form factor, payloads can now experience the microgravity, radiation and other harsh elements native to the space environment, observe earth, test sensors, materials, and electronics, all while having the opportunity to return the payload back to Earth.^[35]

JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi (background) and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins (foreground) prepare the NanoRacks External Platform (NREP) for installation.

See also

• NASA
• Private spaceflight
• CubeSat
• Small satellite
• Center for the Advancement of Science in Space
• Blue Origin
• Space Angels Network
• SpaceX
• Dragon spacecraft
• Orbital ATK
• Orbital Sciences Cygnus
• JAXA
• H-II Transfer Vehicle
• Soyuz (spacecraft)
• Planet Labs

References

External links

• Company website
• DreamUp
• XO Markets
• NASA - NanoRacks Platforms
• NanoRacks Is The UPS Of Outer Space Shipping, FastCompany profile, 12 August 2012.