~20,000 Projects · 97 Programs · 6 Mission Directorates
20,150 projects across 97 programs and 6 mission directorates
STMD owns 83% of all TechPort projects (16,827)
SBIR/STTR alone = 12,272 projects (61%)
Only 3.6% of projects are currently active
97 programs, but top 3 = 72% of completed work
74 cancellations (0.37%) — extremely low rate
TechPort covers technology development — not operational missions, science, or procurement
97 programs across 6 mission directorates — (active / completed / canceled = total)
733 active projects — STMD owns 69%
STMD — 505 active (69%)
STRG (195), SBIR/STTR (138), GCD (70)
FO (55), TDM (21), NIAC (13)
SMD — 117 active (16%)
Spread across 20 programs in 5 divisions
APRA (30), PICASSO (21), DALI (13)
ESDMD — 53 active (7%)
MCO = 92% of ESDMD (49 of 53)
Gateway, HLS, Orion, SLS = 0 projects
(platforms, not tech-dev programs)
ARMD — 22 active (3%)
EPSCoR — 15 active (2%)
SOMD — 11 active (2%)
MSD — 10 active (1%)
Active project destinations — projects can target multiple destinations
Moon & Cislunar leads at 46%
Mars close behind at 33%
Earth at 29% (instruments + testing)
The top 3 destinations account for the vast majority of active work.
Shares exceed 100% because projects can target multiple destinations.
Low Earth Orbit (9%) reflects the ISS transition — commercial LEO stations are being developed but most tech work targets the Moon.
62% at TRL 2–4 (concept through lab validation). Only 16 projects at TRL 7+.
PIPELINE SHAPE:
TRL 0–1: 42 projects (6%)
TRL 2–4: 424 projects (58%)
TRL 5–6: 92 projects (13%)
TRL 7–9: 16 projects (2%)
N/A: 159 projects (22%)
The portfolio is heavily front-loaded in early-stage research.
The "valley of death" between lab validation (TRL 4) and flight demo (TRL 7) is clearly visible.
Only 16 projects are near flight-ready — 2% of portfolio.
Active projects by NASA taxonomy area
Sensors & Instruments (TX08) dominates — 155 projects, driven by SMD science instruments.
Life Support (TX06) at #2 reflects the Artemis habitation push.
Materials & Manufacturing (TX12) at #3 — in-space and lunar construction technologies.
These 10 domains cover the vast majority of active work.
Who is doing the work?
NASA CENTERS lead the top 7:
Johnson, Glenn, Ames, JPL,
Marshall, Goddard, Langley
UNIVERSITIES in the top 10:
MIT, UC Boulder, UT Austin
This reflects lead org — many projects have university PIs with NASA center partnerships.
SBIR/STTR projects are led by industry but may not appear in the top 10 due to fragmentation across many small companies.
Top 10 technology domains × top 3 destinations for 733 active projects
KEY INSIGHTS:
Life Support (TX06) is #1 for both Moon AND Mars — the only domain where Mars > Moon.
Moon-specific investments:
Power (40 vs 21) — lunar night
ISRU (32 vs 15) — regolith
Materials (43 vs 15) — construction
Mars-specific investments:
EDL (24 vs 18) — atmosphere
Life support (71 vs 65) — duration
Gap: Comms has only 4 Mars projects — risk as missions scale.
19,343 completed projects — SBIR/STTR is 63% of all completed work
SBIR/STTR: 12,134 completed
(not shown — would blow the scale)
Top 3 = 72% of all completed:
SBIR/STTR: 12,134 (63%)
STRG: 907 (5%)
GSFC IRAD: 849 (4%)
Top 10 = 80%
Top 25 = 94.5%
Center Innovation Fund (CIF):
1,922 projects — all completed,
zero active. Program appears
to have wound down.
GSFC IRAD is an outlier at 858
vs. other IRADs avg ~30-40.
74 canceled projects (0.37%) — FO and GCD account for 57%
Cancellations concentrate in programs that push technologies toward demonstration — the stage where technical risk is highest and down-selects happen.
Flight Opportunities (FO): 22 canceled
Tests tech in flight environments
5% cancellation rate (22 of 430)
Game Changing Development (GCD): 20
Matures mid-TRL technologies
4% cancellation rate (20 of 468)
Technology Demonstration Missions: 6
8% cancellation rate (6 of 72)
Higher cancellation at higher TRL is expected and healthy — it means NASA is making down-select decisions.
430 total (55 active / 353 completed / 22 canceled)
By Organization Type (55 active)
FO is heavily industry-led (55%)
Top tech areas:
Life Support,
Manufacturing,
Propulsion, EDL,
ISRU
These are the building blocks for sustained lunar and Mars presence.
SBIR/STTR dominates everything — 12,272 projects (61% of portfolio). NASA's primary technology pipeline.
Mars Campaign Office is ESDMD's workhorse — 122 total (49 active). Where Artemis-era tech actually gets tracked.
STMD owns 83% of all projects. The rest of the agency combined accounts for ~3,300 projects in TechPort.
Cancellation rates are very low — 0.37%. Cancellations concentrate in FO and GCD where technical risk is highest.
Center Innovation Fund — 1,922 projects, all completed, zero active. Program appears to have wound down.
HRP has wound down in TechPort — 1 active vs. 180 completed. May be tracking work elsewhere now.
GSFC IRAD is an outlier — 858 projects vs. other center IRADs averaging ~30-40. Far more diligent reporting.
15 programs show 0/0/0 — umbrella/parent programs, platforms, or tracking work through other mechanisms.
Many ESDMD vehicle programs are empty shells — Gateway, HLS, Orion, SLS show 0/0/0. These are platforms, not technology development programs.
What TechPort does NOT cover: operational missions, science investigations, procurement contracts, cross-agency partnerships, policy initiatives.
METHODOLOGY
This analysis was produced using Claude (Anthropic) with real-time access to NASA's public TechPort database via a custom MCP (Model Context Protocol) server.
The MCP server queries TechPort's public REST API and returns structured project, program, and taxonomy data. No internal or restricted NASA systems were accessed.
All project counts were derived from the live TechPort index (~20,150 projects) queried on March 24, 2026.
All project IDs can be verified at:
techport.nasa.gov/view/{projectId}
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