PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 11 CA-VIASPACE-WinsArmy
PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VIASPACE Inc.
(OTC Bulletin Board: VSPC) subsidiary Ionfinity has been awarded a $750,000
Phase II contract for its proposal entitled "Advanced Robotic Detection of
Chemical Agents, Toxic Industrial Gases, and Improvised Explosive Devices
(IED)s for Force Health Protection" submitted to the Army 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 agents and explosives that threaten US
forces. 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 novel chemical agent sensor 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 species, and a micro-gas chromatograph for
confirmation and enhanced detection capability. The goal of the effort is to
demonstrate a commercialized prototype of an enhanced version of the General
Dynamics JUNO(TM) system that is inexpensive, compact, totally integrated and
very rugged. The new detection and analysis system can be used to identify
chemical & bio-warfare agents, industrial toxic gases, and chemical components
of Improvised Explosive Devices in air, water or solids. It is designed to be
integrated with unmanned ground vehicles for medical force health protection
and combat casualty care missions. This device is targeted to detect chemicals
at parts per trillion (ppt) to low parts per billion (ppb) levels within 6
seconds.
Ionfinity Chairman, 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: 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. VIASPACE is located in Pasadena
California. For more information, please see http://www.VIASPACE.com, or
contact Dr. Jan Vandersande, Director of Communications at 800-517-8050, or
IR@VIASPACE.com.
This news release includes forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements relate to future events or our future performance
and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may
cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to
be materially different from any future results, levels of activity,
performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking
statements. Such factors include the risks outlined in our periodic filings
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report
on Form 10-KSB for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007, as well as general
economic and business conditions, the ability to acquire and develop specific
projects and technologies, the ability to fund operations, changes in consumer
and business consumption habits, and other factors over which VIASPACE has
little or no control.
SOURCE VIASPACE Inc.
