Money !
VIASPACE Subsidiary Ionfinity to Receive Additional $786,000 Under U.S. Navy Contract
2010-04-08 08:30 ET - News Release
Navy Exercises Phase II Contract Option
IRVINE, Calif., April 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VIASPACE Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: VSPC) an alternative energy company with subsidiary operations in security technology, announced that its security technology subsidiary, Ionfinity LLC, will receive an additional $786,000 in funding from the U.S. Navy under a previously awarded contract.
The Company received notice that the U.S. Navy exercised an option to provide the funding for an additional eighteen months of development work. In October 2008, Ionfinity was awarded a competitively selected Phase II contract for eighteen months and received an initial amount of $492,000. To date, Ionfinity has been awarded $1,278,000 under this U.S. Navy contract.
Ionfinity Chief Executive Officer James Weiss said, "We believe the new sensor we are building will substantially raise the standard for future chemical detection and analysis and at the same time make the sensor's operation and performance much more convenient and timely."
Weiss added that while Ionfinity's new sensor technology has direct application in the security industry, it is also expected to have commercial applications in environmental monitoring, agriculture and medicine.
Through its subsidiary Ionfinity LLC, VIASPACE is developing a sensitive miniaturized "sniffer" in a joint collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Sionex and Imaginative Technologies. The development project, entitled "Miniature Electronic Sniffer for Navy Vertical Take off Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (VTUAVs)" was awarded bythe U.S. Navy's Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program.
The sensor is a compact stand-alone chemical detection device consisting of: 1) a new and powerful detector called a Differential Mobility Spectrometer; 2) a non-radioactive ionization method that does not fragment or multiply-ionize sampled specimens; and 3) a micro-gas chromatograph for confirmation and enhanced detection capability. The device will detect chemicals and materials of interest at parts-per-billion (ppb) levels within 5 seconds. The hand-held sensor is self contained with respect to power and communications.
