PICASSO
Planetary Instrument Concepts for the Advancement of Solar System Observations (PICASSO) Program
PICASSO Projects
Planetary Instrument Concepts for the Advancement of Solar System Observations (PICASSO) Program
Typical Solicitation Timeline:
- ROSES solicitation release
- No Due Date (NoDD) – Proposals can be submitted anytime
- Step-1 or NOI – Not required
- DAPR
- Open Science and Data Management Plan is required
- Panel Reviews – Throughout the year
Solicitation Overview:
- PICASSO program supports the development of instrument hardware that would enhance or enable the scientific return from future planetary missions, e.g., SIMPLEx, Discovery, New Frontiers, Mars Exploration, and other planetary programs, including those flown on commercial spacecraft.
- New proof-of-concept instruments, systems or components, including sampling technologies, that significantly improve instrument measurement capabilities to address high priority science goals of planetary missions.
- PICASSO program objective is to develop and mature low size, weight and power instruments or instrument technologies with entry Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 1-3. TRL >4+ advancement is made through the Maturation of Instruments for Solar System Exploration (MatISSE) Program.
- For examples of past PICASSO program funded instruments applicability to science goals and instrument type, see link: https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/space/pesto/investment-areas/picasso/planetary-instrument-concepts-for-the-advancement-of-solar-system-observations-picasso/
All PICASSO Projects are listed on TechPort through the link below.
https://techport.nasa.gov/searches/1586
PICASSO Projects
Projects | PI | PI | Activity Title | Instrument/Platform | Taxonomy | Orbital/ | Destination | PI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
16-PICASO16_2-0002 | Sava | Paul | Instrument | Seismometer | Orbital/Flyby (from space) | Asteroids | Colorado School of Mines | |
16-PICASO16_2-0095 | Sun | Xiaoli | Linear Mode Photon Counting HgCdTe Avalanche Photodiode Arrays for Multi-beam Laser Altimeters | Instrument | LIDAR | Orbital/Flyby (from space) | All planetary bodies | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
17-PICASO17_2-0025 | Webster | Chris | Subtraction Imaging as a Game-Changer for Planetary Tunable Laser Spectrometer Performance | Instrument | Infrared | All | All planetary bodies | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
17-PICASO17_2-0029 | Yee | Karl | Instrument | Seismometer | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | All planetary bodies | Jet Propulsion Laboratory | |
17-PICASO17_2-0030 | Aslam | Shahid | Advanced Net Flux Radiometer Focal Plane Assembly for Ice Giants | Instrument | Thermal Infrared | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
17-PICASO17_2-0037 | Drouin | Brian | Instrument | Sub-mm/THz/microwave | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Comets | Jet Propulsion Laboratory | |
17-PICASO17_2-0048 | Bagheri | Mahmood | Electrically pumped mid-IR optical frequency combs for dual frequency spectroscopy | Instrument | Chemical methods (sensors, chromatography, microfluidics, etc.) | All planetary surface (anything on planetary body except in-space) | All planetary bodies with atmospheres | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
17-PICASO17_2-0058 | Drew | Howard | Instrument | Sub-mm/THz/microwave | All planetary surface (anything on planetary body except in-space) | Icy moons | University of Maryland | |
17-PICASO17_2-0083 | Molyneux | Phliippa | Development of far-UV-sensitive silicon imaging arrays for compact UV instrumentation | Instrument | Ultraviolet/ Visible | Orbital/Flyby (from space) | All planetary bodies | Southwest Research Institute |
17-PICASO17_2-0089 | Hartzell | Christine | In-Situ Cohesion Quantification and Sample Collection Through Electrostatic Lofting | Instrument | Sampler/Extractor/ Separator | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | All airless planetary bodies | University of Maryland |
17-PICASO17_2-0094 | Obbard | Rachel | Instrument | High energy (x-ray, g-ray, neutron, etc.) | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Mars | SETI Institute | |
17-PICASO17_2-0109 | Arevalo | Ricardo | Miniaturized Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICPMS) for Trace Element Analysis | Instrument | Mass Spectrometry | All planetary surface/atmosphere (anything on planetary body except in-space) | All airless planetary bodies | University of Maryland |
17-PICASO17_2-0123 | Zacny | Kris | SLUSH: Thermo-Mechanical Deep Drilling System for Ocean Worlds and Mars | Platform | Drill | Lander/Submersible | Icy moons | Honeybee |
17-PICASO17_2-0126 | Banfield | Donald | Instrument | Dust/Saltation probe | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | All planetary bodies with atmospheres | Cornell University | |
18-PICASO18_2-0003 | Amsden | Jason | Instrument | Mass Spectrometry | All planetary surface/atmosphere (anything on planetary body except in-space) | All planetary bodies | Duke University | |
18-PICASO18_2-0013 | Angel | Stanley | Compact, Robust Spatial Heterodyne Raman Spectrometer for Planetary Exploration | Instrument | Raman | Orbital/Flyby (from space) | All planetary bodies | University of South Carolina |
18-PICASO18_2-0027 | Carr | Christopher | Electronic Life-detection Instrument for Enceladus/Europa (ELIE) | Instrument | Biological sensor | All planetary surface/atmosphere (anything on planetary body except in-space) | All planetary bodies | Georgia Institute of Technology |
18-PICASO18_2-0033 | Balcerski | Jeffrey | Instrument | Ultraviolet/ Visible | All planetary surface/atmosphere (anything on planetary body except in-space) | Venus | Ohio Aerospace Institute | |
18-PICASO18_2-0036 | Bar-Cohen | Yoseph | Elastic wave analyzer for icy sub-surfaces (EWAIS) in the solar system | Instrument | Seismometer | Lander/Submersible (in liquid ocean) | Icy moons | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
18-PICASO18_2-0047 | Rais-Zadeh | Mina | Radiation Hard and High Temperature Tolerant Thermal Imagers (HOT IR) | Instrument | Infrared | All planetary surface/atmosphere (anything on planetary body except in-space) | Venus | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
18-PICASO18_2-0056 | Yu | Anthony | Photonic Integrated Circuit TUned for Reconnaissance and Exploration (PICTURE) | Instrument | LIDAR | Orbital/Flyby (from space) | All planetary bodies | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
18-PICASO18_2-0073 | Clark | Charles | DOWSER: Detecting Objects’ Water from Spatial Epithermal-neutron Response | Instrument | High energy (x-ray, g-ray, neutron, etc.) | All | All airless planetary bodies | University of Maryland, College Park |
18-PICASO18_2-0076 | Hendrix | Amanda | A Far-UV Micromirror Integral Field Spectrograph for Planetary Science | Instrument | Ultraviolet/ Visible | All | All planetary bodies | Planetary Science Institute |
18-PICASO18_2-0106 | Zhong | Fang | In-Situ Organic Extraction, Separation and Detection using Supercritical CO2 and Superheated Water | Instrument | Chemical methods (sensors, chromatography, microfluidics, etc.) | All planetary surface/atmosphere (anything on planetary body except in-space) | All planetary bodies | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
19-PICASSO192-0016 | Abshire | James | Small Lidar for Profiling Water Vapor and Winds from Planetary Landers | Instrument | LIDAR | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Mars | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
19-PICASSO192-0033 | Dai | Lenore | Development of a Rugged Seismometer for Venus Surface Deployment | Instrument | Chemical methods (sensors, chromatography, microfluidics, etc.) | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Venus | Arizona State University |
19-PICASSO192-0035 | Anderson | Robert | Soil Properties Assessment Resistance and Thermal Analysis (SPARTA) | Instrument | Chemical methods (sensors, chromatography, microfluidics, etc.) | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | All planetary bodies | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
19-PICASSO192-0056 | Bower | Dina | Instrument | Raman | All planetary surface/atmosphere (anything on planetary body except in-space) | Icy moons | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | |
19-PICASSO192-0063 | Grubisic | Andrej | Instrument | Raman | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Earth’s Moon, Asteroids and small moons, Comets, Icy moons, All airless planetary bodies | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | |
19-PICASSO192-0068 | Bourouiba | Lydia | Instrument | Chemical methods (sensors, chromatography, microfluidics, etc.) | Lander/Submersible (in liquid ocean) | Mars, Comets, Titan, Icy moons | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | |
19-PICASSO192-0070 | Marshall | Patrick | Instrument | Raman | All planetary surface/atmosphere (anything on planetary body except in-space) | Titan, Icy moons | University of Kansas | |
19-PICASSO192-0074 | Mann | Chris | Instrument | Infrared | All | Asteroids and small moons, Comets, Icy moons, All planetary bodies | Nanohmics Inc | |
19-PICASSO192-0085 | Sarrazin | Philippe | Instrument | High energy (x-ray, g-ray, neutron, etc.) | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Mercury, Venus, Earth’s Moon, Mars, Asteroids and small moons, Comets, Titan, Icy moons | SETI Institute | |
19-PICASSO192-0102 | Bolton | Scott | Deep Atmosphere Microwave Radiometer for Ice-Giant Exploration | Instrument | Atmospheric probe | Orbital/Flyby (from space) | Gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) | Southwest Research Institute |
19-PICASSO192-0110 | Summers | David | Detection of Organics by Gas Chromatography/Gas Phase Fluorescence (GC/GPF) | Instrument | Chemical methods (sensors, chromatography, microfluidics, etc.) | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Mars, Icy moons | NASA Ames Research Center |
19-PICASSO192-0120 | Nikzad | Shouleh | UV/Visible Photon Counting and Imaging Silicon Detectors for Planetary Science Instruments | Instrument | Ultraviolet/ Visible | Orbital/Flyby (from space) | Venus, Mars, Comets, Other gas giant moons and rings, All planetary bodies | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
20-PICASO20-0013 | Bennett | Christopher | Instrument | Raman | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Asteroids and small moons, Comets, Titan, Icy moons | University of Central Florida | |
20-PICASO20-0017 | Mehdi | Imran | Submillimeter-wave Line-spectrometer for Isotopologue Measurements (SUBLIME) | Instrument | Sub-mm/THz/microwave | Orbital/Flyby (from space) | Comets, Icy moons | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
20-PICASO20-0031 | Romaine | Suzanne | Advancing Miniature Lightweight X-ray Optics for Solar System Exploration | Instrument | High energy (x-ray, g-ray, neutron, etc.) | Orbital/Flyby (from space) | Mercury, Earth’s Moon, Asteroids and small moons, Comets, All airless planetary bodies, All planetary bodies | Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory |
20-PICASO20-0041 | Noell | Aaron | Instrument | Chemical methods (sensors, chromatography, microfluidics, etc.) | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Icy Worlds, Moons | Jet Propulsion Laboratory | |
20-PICASO20-0044 | Kraus | Hannes | Optically Pumped Solid-State Quantum Magnetometer OPuS-MAGNM | Instrument | Magnetometer | All | Asteroids and small moons, All planetary bodies | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
20-PICASO20-0075 | Sultana | Mahmooda | Volatile-sensing Array for Planetary Onsite Research (VAPOR) | Instrument | Chemical methods (sensors, chromatography, microfluidics, etc.) | All planetary surface/atmosphere (anything on planetary body except in-space) | Earth’s Moon, Mars, All planetary bodies | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
20-PICASO20-0091 | Fleming | Brian | Far-Ultraviolet Guiding Fiber Optics for Future Planetary Science Missions | Instrument | Ultraviolet/ Visible | All | Mars, Comets, Gas giants, Titan, Icy moons, All planetary bodies | University of Colorado |
20-PICASO20-0099 | Wilhelm | Mary Beth | KAMELOT: Kerogen And Macromolecule Extractor Liberating Organics Thermolytically | Instrument | Chemical methods (sensors, chromatography, microfluidics, etc.) | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Mars, Asteroids and small moons, Titan, Icy moons, All airless planetary bodies, All planetary bodies with atmospheres | NASA Ames Research Center |
20-PICASO20-0108 | Moore | Thomas | Solid-State CW Deep UV Laser Source for Planetary Science Instruments | Instrument | Raman | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Earth’s Moon, Asteroids and small moons, Icy moons, All planetary bodies | Southwest Research Institute |
20-PICASO20-0123 | Nemchick | Deacon | Quadrupole Ion Trap – Vibrational Action Spectroscopy (QIT-VAS) for Identification of Biomolecules | Instrument | Mass Spectrometry | All planetary surface/atmosphere (anything on planetary body except in-space) | Titan, Icy moons, All planetary bodies with atmospheres | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
21-PICASSO21-0010 | Brisset | Julie | Instrument | Microscopy | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Earth’s Moon, Asteroids and small moons, Comets, Titan, Icy moons, Other gas giant moons and rings, All airless planetary bodies | University of Central Florida | |
21-PICASSO21-0011 | Gupta | Mool | Instrument | Raman | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | All planetary bodies | University of Virginia | |
21-PICASSO21-0014 | Bywaters | Kathryn | Platform | Chemical methods (sensors, chromatography, microfluidics, etc.) | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Earth’s Moon, Mars, Asteroids and small moons, Icy moons, All airless planetary bodies, All planetary bodies with atmospheres, All planetary bodies | Honeybee Robotics | |
21-PICASSO21-0016 | Hewagama | Tilak | Instrument | Ultraviolet/ Visible | Orbital/Flyby (from space) | All planetary bodies | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | |
21-PICASSO21-0017 | Tang | Adrian | Instrument | Radar/GPR | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Mars | NASA Langley Research Center | |
21-PICASSO21-0024 | Campbell | Joel | Instrument | LIDAR | Orbital/Flyby (from space) | Mars | Jet Propulsion Laboratory | |
22-PICASSO22-0001 | Cremons | Daniel | Tunable Mid-Infrared Spectroscopic Imaging Lidar for 4D Volatile Mapping | Instrument | LIDAR | All | Earth’s Moon, Comets, Icy moons | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
22-PICASSO22-0004 | Lim | Lucy | A Robust Electron Source for a Miniaturized Electron Probe for In Situ Elemental Microanalysis | Instrument | High energy (x-ray, g-ray, neutron, etc.) | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Mercury, Earth’s Moon, Asteroids and small moons, Comets, Icy moons, All airless planetary bodies | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
22-PICASSO22-0006 | Scott | Valerie | Instrument | High energy (x-ray, g-ray, neutron, etc.) | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Earth’s Moon, Mars, Asteroids and small moons | Jet Propulsion Laboratory | |
22-PICASSO22-0007 | Schindhelm | Rebecca | A Selective High-Resolution Metamaterial Filter for Infrared Spectroscopy | Instrument | Infrared | All | Comets, Gas Giants, Icy Moons | Ball Aerospace |
22-PICASSO22-0011 | Bar-Cohen | Yoseph | Deployable Infrasonic Sensor Array (DISA) for Venus Geophysical Studies | Instrument | Seismometer | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Venus | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
22-PICASSO22-0013 | Parsons | Ann | Instrument | High energy (x-ray, g-ray, neutron, etc.) | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | All planetary bodies | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | |
22-PICASSO22-0014 | Soibel | Alex | Instrument | Infrared | Orbital/Flyby (from space) | Venus, Earth’s Moon, Other gas giant moons and rings | Jet Propulsion Laboratory | |
22-PICASSO22-0017 | Corliss | Jason | Instrument | Ultraviolet/ Visible | Orbital/Flyby (from space) | All planetary bodies | University of Arizona | |
22-PICASSO22-0018 | Lee | Jaeho | Holey Silicon-based Thermopiles for High-Sensitivity Broadband Thermal Detection | Instrument | Thermal Infrared | All | Earth’s Moon, Gas giants, Icy moons | University of California, Irvine |
23-PICASSO23-00013 | Eshelman | Evan | Multispectral Organic Detection and Near-Infrared Exobiology Tool | Instrument | Raman | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Mars, Asteroids and small moons, Comets, Titan, Icy moons, All airless planetary bodies, All planetary bodies with atmospheres, All planetary bodies | Montana State University |
23-PICASSO23-0006 | Blake | David | Zero power 244-Cm Sources for Spacecraft Instruments | Instrument | High energy (x-ray, g-ray, neutron, etc.) | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Earth’s Moon, Mars | NASA Ames Research Center |
23-PICASSO23-0008 | Li | Xiang | Laser Ablation Mass Analyzer (LAMA) | Instrument | Mass Spectrometry | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Earth’s Moon, Asteroids and small moons, Comets, Icy moons, All airless planetary bodies | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
23-PICASSO23-0010 | Rahiminejad | Sophia | Seismometers for Harsh Atmospheric and Kinetic Environments (SHAKE) | Instrument | Seismometer | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Venus, Earth’s Moon, Icy moons | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
23-PICASSO23-0011 | Wiens | Roger | Fine-Scale Pixel Element Mapping for Mars, the Moon, and Other Bodies with Miniaturized LIBS | Instrument | Mass Spectrometry | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Mercury, Earth’s Moon, Mars, Asteroids and small moons, Comets, Titan, Icy moons, Other gas/ice giant moons and rings, All airless planetary bodies | Purdue University |
23-PICASSO23-0013 | Eshelman | Evan | Multispectral Organic Detection and Near-Infrared Exobiology Tool (HBR) | Instrument | Raman | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Mars, Asteroids and small moons, Titan, Icy moons, All airless planetary bodies, All planetary bodies with atmospheres | Honeybee Robotics |
23-PICASSO23-0016 | Chou | Luoth | Gas Analysis for Life Explorers (GALE) | Instrument | Chemical methods (sensors, chromatography, microfluidics, etc.) | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Mars, Ice giants (Uranus, Neptune), Titan, Icy moons, All planetary bodies with atmospheres, All planetary bodies | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
23-PICASSO23-0019 | Wang | Xu | Compact Electrostatic Dust Analyzer (CEDA) for Measuring Dust Transport on Small Airless Bodies | Instrument | Dust/Saltation probe | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Asteroids and small moons, Comets | University of Colorado |
23-PICASSO23-0021 | Leon | Omar | Lunar Vehicle Active Charge Control System | Instrument | Plasma Probe | All | Earth’s Moon | University of Michigan |
23-PICASSO23-0026 | Phal | Yamuna | Mid-Infrared Rapid Advanced Chiroptical Life-detection Explorer (MIRACLE) | Instrument | Microscopy | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Mars, Asteroids and small moons, Titan, Icy moons, All airless planetary bodies, All planetary bodies with atmospheres | Colorado School of Mines |
23-PICASSO23-0027 | Abrahamsson | Sven | Low-pressure ion mobility spectrometer for in-situ organic analysis | Instrument | Chemical methods (sensors, chromatography, microfluidics, etc.) | Lander/Rover (on or within solid ground) | Mars, Asteroids and small moons, Titan, Icy moons, All airless planetary bodies, All planetary bodies with atmospheres | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |


