VIASPACE Subsidiary Wins $786,000 U.S. Navy Contract
PR Newswire
Posted: 2008-10-21 08:30:00
PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VIASPACE Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: VSPC) subsidiary Ionfinity has been awarded a $786,000 Phase II contract for its proposal entitled "Miniature Electronic Sniffer for Navy Vertical Take off Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (VTUAVs)" by the Navy's Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program. This competitively selected two year contract will result in a field demonstration of high sensitivity detection and analysis capability for chemical, explosive, and illegal drug residues in the holds and storage bays of suspect vessels. In addition to developing products for the $55 billion security industry, the new sensor technology is expected to have commercial applications in environmental monitoring, agriculture and medicine.
Ionfinity's contract is to develop a sensitive miniaturized sniffer through a joint collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, General Dynamics, Sionex, and Imaginative Technologies. This chemical sensor system consists of a new and powerful detector called a Differential Mobility Spectrometer, a novel "soft-ionization" method that does not fragment or multiply ionize-sampled specimens, and a micro-gas chromatograph for confirmation and enhanced detection capability all integrated into a compact stand-alone system. The goal of the effort is to demonstrate detection of chemical, explosive, and illegal drug residues in the holds and storage bays of suspect vessels. The device will detect chemicals and materials of interest at ppb levels after 6 seconds. The sensor will be completely self contained with respect to power and communications and only physically attach to the VTUAV for lowering into or on to the vessel of interest.
Ionfinity Chief Operating Officer, and Principal Investigator for this effort, James Weiss, reports, "This new sensor will change the paradigm used for future chemical detection and analysis, making it much more convenient, sensitive, selective and timely."
About VIASPACE: Originally founded in 1998 with the objective of transforming proven space and defense technologies from NASA and the Department of Defense into hardware and software solutions that solve today's complex problems, VIASPACE benefits from important patent and software licenses from Caltech, which manages NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For more information, please visit our website at viaspace.com, or contact for Investor Relations, Dr. Jan Vandersande, Director of Communications at 800-517-8050, or IR@VIASPACE.com. |
