Use the following email HESTO@mail.nasa.gov.

Maturation is the process of increasing the technology readiness level (TRL) of the technology. For low TRL levels (<6), this usually takes place in the laboratory but may also involve flying the new technology on sounding rockets, balloon, or even space mission. Infusion is the act of using the new technology to perform new science investigations which generally requires space flight. Infusion and maturation are not mutually exclusive. Sometimes a space flight opportunity for a new technology may both advance its TRL as well as do address new science.

The NASA Public Access Plan as well NASA SMD SPD-41a provides some guidance on this topic. The relevant takeaways are:

• NASA-funded technology investments must be described on Techport.
• Scientific publications must be made freely available and publicly accessible, by default, at the time of publication. Researchers can publish in journals that are part of the Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States (CHORUS) publishing group. If publishing through a different journal, ensure that it provides open access to your article and/or submit it manually to the NASA STI Repository. Assuming the journal does have open access submit it to the STI Repository.Research data that underly the results and findings in published results must be made available at the time of publication. This requirement can be met by including the data as supplementary information to the published article, through NASA archives (such as NTRS, data.nasa.gov, or other repositories such as Zenodo, or OSF), or other means. The published article should indicate how these data can be accessed.
• Scientific software (including the documentation that describes how to use it) underlying peer-reviewed scholarly publications resulting from federally-funded research must be made freely available and publicly accessible by default at the time of publication. The software should be released under a permissive license that has broad acceptance in the community. Software released independently from a peer-reviewed manuscript must be assigned a Unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to enable preservation, discovery, and citation of the software (see Zenodo). PIs are encouraged to publicly release software tools and algorithms that they develop that might be generally useful to the community in keeping with intellectual property protections and applicable restrictions such as ITAR and EAR.

Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) are a type of measurement system used to assess the maturity level of a particular technology typically for us in space.

Generally, technologies assessed from TRLs 1 to 5 require development while TRL 6 and above are considered mature. NASA missions typically require that all technologies be TRL 6 or above, unless stated otherwise, when flown. For missions such as Small Explorers, development plans for technologies below TRL 6 are generally acceptable if the technology is matured well before it is to be launched. Regardless of maturity, the TRL of all technologies in NASA missions must be justified by providing their heritage in writing.

For more information, see our Focused Topic on the subject.

The Science Traceability Matrix (STM) is a tool used by NASA science missions that provide a logical flow from science goals and objectives to mission and instrument requirements and data products. It serves as a concise summary of what science will be achieved, combined with how it will be achieved. It is also a required element of NASA science mission proposals.

For more information, see our Focused Topic on the subject.