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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Conformal PICA TPS– Enabling Future Nasa Planetary Science Missions

Initial development of Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (C-PICA) ablative TPS occurred under NASA’s Hypersonics Project in the 2000’s and demonstrated very low through-the-thickness thermal conductivity compared to state-of-the-art Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA). PICA, which was first demonstrated on Stardust, has some inherent limitations that C-PICA improves on, primarily strain to failure. More recently C-PICA has been further matured and a family of C-PICA materials are now ready for consideration as an enabling technology for New Frontiers and other NASA missions. C-PICA has several improvements compared to PICA including: - Higher strain to failure and lower thermal conductivity (up to 55% less than PICA depending on C-PICA variant) - CTE comparable to typical composite carrier structures and also suitable for metallic substructures given high strain to failure - Temperature independent mechanical properties - Suited for single piece (up to ~ 1.5m) or tiled configurations - Larger tiles leading to reduced integration complexity compared to tiled PICA - Reduced mass compared to PICA due to reduced thermal conductivity C-PICA has been tested at heat fluxes ranging from 250-1850 W/cm^2, and shear pressures of 200Pa at 400W/cm^2 with excellent performance. Expertise on manufacturing and integration of C-PICA reside at NASA, and NASA can transition the technology to interested parties via technology transfer.

thermal protection↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Conformal PICA TPS– Enabling Future Nasa Planetary Science Missions

Initial development of conformal PICA (C-PICA) ablative TPS occurred under NASA’s Hypersonics Project in the 2000’s and demonstrated very low through the thickness conductivity compared to state-of-the-art PICA. PICA, which was first demonstrated on Stardust, has some inherent limitations that C-PICA improves on, primarily strain to failure. More recently C-PICA has been further matured and a family of C-PICA materials are now ready for consideration as an enabling technology for New Frontiers and other NASA missions. C-PICA has several improvements compared to PICA including: - Higher strain to failure and lower thermal conductivity (up to 55% less than PICA depending on C-PICA variant) - CTE comparable to typical composite carrier structures - Temperature independent mechanical properties - Suited for single piece (up to ~ 1.5m) or tiled configurations - Larger tiles leading to reduced integration complexity compared to tiled PICA - Reduced mass compared to PICA due to reduced thermal conductivity C-PICA has been tested at heating fluxes ranging from 250-1850 W/cm2 with excellent performance. Based on our evaluation, multiple missions listed on the SMD Technology Showcase will potentially need a thermal protection system capable of withstanding entry environments where C-PICA is suited either as a forebody or backshell TPS. We will be highlighting mature conformal PICA variants to support the following missions at the showcase in January 2023.

thermal protection↗
NASA NTRS2022

Wide-band Planar Dipole Antennas for Earth and Planetary Science Applications

Dipole antennas are well known and are used for a variety of applications in many different shapes and forms. Wide-band planar dipole antennas, in particular, have been developed, designed and implemented in the past and have shown promising RF performance. In this paper, we describe a particular style of a wide-band planar dipole antenna that is being developed over a wide range of frequencies for a variety of scientific applications on Earth, the Moon and beyond. Aside from the appealing RF performance, this antenna element also lends itself to being easily folded and stowed on a small satellite and deployed once in space, making it very useful in applications where large apertures or low frequency/long wavelength antennas need to be deployed from a small platform (compared to the wavelength).

Shenoy, Tushar↗