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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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Aneutronic Fusion for In-Space thrust, power. Clean energy & potential nuclear gains. Fusion plant concepts, potential to use advanced fuels. Methods to harness ionic momentum for high Isp thrust plus direct power conversion into electricity will be presented.
An advanced thrust liner material for potential long life reusable rocket engines is described. This liner material was produced with the intent of improving the reusable life of high pressure thrust chambers by strengthening the chamber in the hoop direction, thus avoiding the longitudinal cracking due to low cycle fatigue that is observed in conventional homogeneous copper chambers, but yet not reducing the high thermal conductivity that is essential when operating with high heat fluxes. The liner material produced was a tungsten wire reinforced copper composite. Incorporating this composite into two hydrogen-oxygen test rocket chambers was done so that its performance as a reusable liner material could be evaluated. Testing results showed that both chambers failed prematurely, but the crack sites were perpendicular to the normal direction of cracking indicating a degree of success in containing the tremendous thermal strain associated with high temperature rocket engines. The failures, in all cases, were associated with drilled instrumentation ports and no other damages or deformations were found elsewhere in the composite liners.
Solar sail propulsion systems enable a wide range of missions that require constant thrust or high delta-V over long mission times. One particularly challenging mission type is a comet rendezvous mission. This paper presents optimal low-thrust trajectory designs for a range of sailcraft performance metrics and mission transit times that enables a comet rendezvous mission. These optimal trajectory results provide a trade space which can be parameterized in terms of mission duration and sailcraft performance parameters such that a design space for a small satellite comet chaser mission is identified. These results show that a feasible space exists for a small satellite to perform a comet chaser mission in a reasonable mission time.
Filament winding a polymer/carbon fiber composite overwrap onto an additively manufactured copper combustion chamber will allow it to act as a light-weight structural jacket, significantly reducing weight for high pressure thrust chamber assemblies and reducing overall cost and fabrication schedules. Chamber assemblies for 2k lb. and 7k lb. of thrust have been successfully tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Multiple lessons were learned throughout the overwrap process development and manufacturing trials. The lessons learned on small scale hardware will guide further composite manufacturing technologies and enable a progression to larger scale assemblies with greater structural loads. Material performance requirements, manufacturing process development, and surface preparation were evaluated during the small chamber trials, with the broad thermal requirements of the resin being the primary driver for material selection and processing. Both epoxy and bismaleimide materials were evaluated with respect to both performance in the hot-fire test and ease of fabrication. Separately, surface preparation procedures were studied with the goal of providing a smooth chamber surface to promote a non-bonded overwrap. The recent testing of the 7k trust chamber has provided data in Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) and processing in order to continue to evaluate the performance requirements stated.
The feasibility and technology requirements of a low-thrust, high-performance, long-life, gaseous oxygen (GO2)/gaseous hydrogen (GH2) thruster were examined. Candidate engine concepts for auxiliary propulsion systems for space station applications were identified. The low-thrust engine (5 to 100 lb sub f) requires significant departure from current applications of oxygen/hydrogen propulsion technology. Selection of the thrust chamber material and cooling method needed or long life poses a major challenge. The use of a chamber material requiring a minimum amount of cooling or the incorporation of regenerative cooling were the only choices available with the potential of achieving very high performance. The design selection for the injector/igniter, the design and fabrication of a regeneratively cooled copper chamber, and the design of a high-temperature rhenium chamber were documented and the performance and heat transfer results obtained from the test program conducted at JPL using the above engine components presented. Approximately 115 engine firings were conducted in the JPL vacuum test facility, using 100:1 expansion ratio nozzles. Engine mixture ratio and fuel-film cooling percentages were parametrically investigated for each test configuration.
A number of upcoming missions require different thrust levels on the same spacecraft. A highly scaleable and efficient propulsion system would allow substantial mass savings. One type of thruster that can throttle from high to low thrust while maintaining a high specific impulse is a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) colloidal thruster. The NASA GSFC MEMS colloidal thruster has solved the problem of electrical breakdown to permit the integration of the electrode on top of the emitter by a novel MEMS fabrication technique. Devices have been successfully fabricated and the insulation properties have been tested to show they can support the required electric field. A computational finite element model was created and used to verify the voltage required to successfully operate the thruster. An experimental setup has been prepared to test the devices with both optical and Time-Of-Flight diagnostics.
Filament wound carbon fiber/polymer composite overwraps combined with additively manufactured (AM) copper alloy combustion chambers are a critical part of NASA’s Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology (RAMPT) project. The composite overwrap is a high strength-to-weight material and allows for significant weight reduction of the high-pressure thrust chamber assembly, reduction of overall cost, and reduced fabrication time while offering structural robustness. Integrated AM/composite overwrap chamber assemblies using 2,000 lbf (2k) and 7,000 lbf (7k) thrust were successfully hot fire tested at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). These assemblies allowed the team to learn lessons related to the design, analysis, and manufacturing of these integrated assemblies. A final goal of the RAMPT project is to design and test a 40,000 lbf (40k) thrust chamber assembly. The40k chamber presented the team several new challenges including an integral inlet port in the main body of the composite overwrap. Through multiple iterations of manufacturing techniques, varied materials, and Non-Destructive Evaluations (NDE), many lessons were learned to obtain a final design solution that would not only allow for the interrupted port inlet but also allow for sufficient material margins for the most critically stressed part of the chamber. This paper will cover the manufacturing techniques exploring fabric designs to help subsidize the coverage in the areas left bare by the inlet port during the filament winding process and custom tooling needed for the final full chamber processing. The original material choice of bismaleimide (BMI) 5250-4 from the 7k chamber performed well for the extreme environment of hot fire testing but proved to be difficult with the increased scale and interrupted port design of the 40kchamber. Discussion in this paper will cover these changes, including evaluation of the design, comparison to the prior 2k and 7k designs, and show the final hardware that will be tested. One primary goal of this work and RAMPT project is to provide this development process and data to industry for infusion into future engine designs.
A wind tunnel program has been conducted in the NASA Ames National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex to investigate the aerodynamic interactions between a full-scale helicopter main rotor and simple fuselage. This program provides the first complete, quantitative data base detailing the effects of a rotor on a full-scale fuselage. Steady fuselage and rotor loads were obtained as well as steady and unsteady fuselage pressures. Data were acquired over a range of rotor thrusts, advance ratios, and shaft tilts. As expected, results indicate that the largest effects on mean fuselage forces, moments, and surface pressures occur at low speeds and high rotor thrusts. Quantitative comparisons were made to determine the ability of small-scale tests to simulate the effect of the rotor on mean fuselage forces and pressures.
The results are presented of a wind tunnel investigation to determine the tail contribution to the directional aerodynamic characteristics of a 1/6-scale model of the rotor systems research aircraft (RSRA) with a tail rotor. No main rotor was used during the investigation. Data were obtained with and without the tail rotor over a range of sideslip angle and over a range of rotor collective pitch angle. The model with the tail rotor was tested at several advance ratios with and without thrust from the auxiliary thrust engines on the RSRA fuselage. Increasing the space between the tail-rotor hub and the vertical tail reduced the tail-rotor torque required at moderate to high rotor thrust. Increasing the exit dynamic pressure of the auxiliary thrust engines decreases the tail contribution to the static directional stability. The tail-rotor thrust and its interference provide a positive increment to the static directional stability. The tail contribution increases with forward speed. The adverse yawing moment of the airframe would strongly affect the thrust required of the tail rotor when the helicopter is hovering in a crosswind.
Results of an experimental effort on pulse detonation driven ejectors are presented and discussed. The experiments were conducted using a pulse detonation engine (PDE)/ejector setup that was specifically designed for the study and operated at frequencies up to 50 Hz. The results of various experiments designed to probe different aspects of the PDE/ejector setup are reported. The baseline PDE was operated using ethylene (C2H4) as the fuel and an oxygen/nitrogen O2 + N2) mixture at an equivalence ratio of one. The PDE only experiments included propellant mixture characterization using a laser absorption technique, high fidelity thrust measurements using an integrated spring-damper system, and shadowgraph imaging of the detonation/shock wave structure emanating from the tube. The baseline PDE thrust measurement results at each desired frequency agree with experimental and modeling results reported in the literature. These PDE setup results were then used as a basis for quantifying thrust augmentation for various PDE/ejector setups with constant diameter ejector tubes and various ejector lengths, the radius of curvature for the ejector inlets and various detonation tube/ejector tube overlap distances. For the studied experimental matrix, the results showed a maximum thrust augmentation of 106% at an operational frequency of 30 Hz. The thrust augmentation results are complemented by shadowgraph imaging of the flowfield in the ejector tube inlet area and high frequency pressure transducer measurements along the length of the ejector tube.
One of the advanced control concepts being investigated on the High-Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) is multi-axis thrust vectoring using an experimental thrust-vectoring (TV) system consisting of three hydraulically actuated vanes per engine. A mixer is used to translate the pitch-, roll-, and yaw-TV commands into the appropriate TV-vane commands for distribution to the vane actuators. A computer-aided optimization process was developed to perform the inversion of the thrust-vectoring effectiveness data for use by the mixer in performing this command translation. Using this process a new mixer was designed for the HARV and evaluated in simulation and flight. An important element of the Mixer is the priority logic, which determines priority among the pitch-, roll-, and yaw-TV commands.
Sound understanding of the cooling efficiency of supercritical hydrogen is crucial to the development of high pressure thrust chambers for regeneratively cooled LOX/LH2 rocket engines. This paper examines historical heat transfer correlations for supercritical hydrogen and the effects of uncertainties in hydrogen property data. It is shown that uncertainty due to property data alone can be as high as 10%. Previous heated tube experiments with supercritical hydrogen are summarized, and data from a number of heated tube experiments are analyzed to evaluate conditions for which the available correlations are valid.
The manufacturing, design, and analysis of filament wound carbon fiber/polymer composite overwraps for additively manufactured, copper combustion chambers are a critical part of NASA’s Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology (RAMPT) project. Ideally, the composite overwrap acts as a light-weight structural jacket and allows significant weight reduction of the high pressure thrust chamber assembly, reduction of overall cost, and reduced fabrication schedules. Chamber assemblies for 2000 lb. (2k) and 7000 lb. (7k) of thrust have been successfully tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Multiple lessons were learned throughout the overwrap process development and manufacturing trials. The lessons learned on small scale hardware, such as the 2k and 7k chambers, will guide further composite manufacturing technologies and enable a progression to larger scale assemblies with greater structural loads. Material performance requirements, manufacturing process development, and surface preparation were evaluated during the small chamber trials, with the broad thermal requirements of the resin being the primary driver for material selection and processing. Both epoxy and bismaleimide (BMI) materials were evaluated with respect to both performance in the hot-fire test and ease of fabrication. Separately, surface preparation procedures were studied with the goal of providing a smooth chamber surface to promote a non-bonded overwrap. Recent testing of the 7k trust chamber has provided data in Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) and processing in order to continue to evaluate the performance requirements stated.
The experimentally determined performance characteristics of an axial-flow turbojet engine have been used to estimate the effects of inlet total-pressure losses on net thrust and specific fuel consumption at a constant engine speed. At low altitudes and flight Mach numbers, inlet pressure losses cause an increase in engine discharge temperature and it is possible that the maximum allowable turbine temperature maybe exceeded. An inlet absolute total-pressure loss of 10 percent will result in a thrust loss of 14 percent and a 15-percent increase in specific fuel consumption based on net thrust. At high altitudes and flight Mach numbers, choking conditions exist in the exhaust nozzle and the inlet pressure losses do not affect the discharge temperatures. Under these conditions, a 10-percent loss in inlet absolute total pressure produces a 22-percent loss in net thrust and a 16-percent increase in specific fuel consumption. If the exhaust-nozzle-outlet area is adjusted to compensate for the effect of inlet losses on discharge temperature in the nonchoking cases (low altitude and Mach numbers), the thrust and fuel consumption will be changed in a manner similar to the results obtained in the choking cases.
NASA and the U.S. aerospace industry have been assessing the economic viability and environmental acceptability of a second-generation supersonic civil transport, or High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT). Development of a propulsion system that satisfies strict airport noise regulations and provides high levels of cruise and transonic performance with adequate takeoff performance, at an acceptable weight, is critical to the success of any HSCT program. The principal objectives were to: 1. Develop a preliminary design of an innovative 2-D exhaust nozzle with the goal of meeting FAR36 Stage III noise levels and providing high levels of cruise performance with a high specific thrust for Mach 2.4 HSCT with a range of 5000 nmi and a payload of 51,900 lbm, 2. Employ advanced acoustic and aerodynamic codes during preliminary design, 3. Develop a comprehensive acoustic and aerodynamic database through scale-model testing of low-noise, high-performance, 2-D nozzle configurations, based on the preliminary design, and 4. Verify acoustic and aerodynamic predictions by means of scale-model testing. The results were: 1. The preliminary design of a 2-D, convergent/divergent suppressor ejector nozzle for a variable-cycle engine powered, Mach 2.4 HSCT was evolved, 2. Noise goals were predicted to be achievable for three takeoff scenarios, and 3. Impact of noise suppression, nozzle aerodynamic performance, and nozzle weight on HSCT takeoff gross weight were assessed.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is maturing high-propellant throughput sub-kilowatt electric propulsion technologies to enable small spacecraft deep space science and exploration missions with high delta-v requirements. The pathfinder model (PM) propulsion system consists of the H71M-PM Hall-effect thruster, a breadboard 1-kW power processing unit (PPU), and a propellant flow control system. The propulsion system requirements balance the needs of various high delta-v NASA and commercial industry mission concepts to achieve a design that both enables a variety of NASA small spacecraft deep space missions, while remaining viable for select commercial applications. The H71M-PM thruster has completed performance characterization and three 500-h short duration wear tests (SDWT). The propulsion system provides stable thrust generation over a wide range of operating conditions from 200 W to 1 kW, and 200 V to 400 V. The thruster has demonstrated a thrust as high as 68 mN at 300 V and 1 kW. The thruster has similarly demonstrated a specific impulse of 1850 s at 400 V and 1 kW. Key surfaces were machined between each SDWT to simulate accelerated discharge channel and pole cover erosion. Profilometry scans across masked pole cover surfaces were conducted to determine erosion rates. SDWT results support that a target thruster lifetime of 14 kh with 50% margin is achievable. Component testing has demonstrated propellant azimuthal flow uniformity better than ± 2 percent of the nominal value, azimuthal magnetic field uniformity better than ± 0.5 percent of the nominal value, and cathode heater cycle testing to greater than 30,000 cycles. Propulsion system integrated system testing is planned to use the H71M-PM and a breadboard 1-kW PPU. Pathfinder model test results are now supporting the design of the H71M-EM engineering model thruster. A second-generation breadboard PPU has been fabricated and is currently under test. NASA has made these technologies available to U.S. industry through a no cost, nonexclusive license agreement.
Plug cluster engine design, performance, weight, envelope, operational characteristics, development cost, and payload capability, were evaluated and comparisons were made with other space tug engine candidates using oxygen/hydrogen propellants. Parametric performance data were generated for existing developed or high technology thrust chambers clustered around a plug nozzle of very large diameter. The uncertainties in the performance prediction of plug cluster engines with large gaps between the modules (thrust chambers) were evaluated. The major uncertainty involves, the aerodynamics of the flow from discrete nozzles, and the lack of this flow to achieve the pressure ratio corresponding to the defined area ratio for a plug cluster. This uncertainty was reduced through a cluster design that consists of a plug contour that is formed from the cluster of high area ratio bell nozzles that have been scarfed. Light-weight, high area ratio, bell nozzles were achieved through the use of AGCarb (carbon-carbon cloth) nozzle extensions.
The Iodine Satellite (iSAT) is a 12U cubesat with a primary mission to demonstrate the iodine fueled Hall Effect Thruster (HET) propulsion system. The spacecraft (SC) will operate throughout a one year mission in an effort to mature the propulsion system for use in future applications. The benefit of the HET is that it uses a propellant, iodine, which is easy to store and provides a high thrust-to-mass ratio. This paper will describe the thermal analysis and design of the SC between Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and Critical Design Review (CDR). The design of the satellite has undergone many changes due to a variety of challenges, both before PDR and during the time period discussed in this paper. Thermal challenges associated with the system include a high power density, small amounts of available radiative surface area, localized temperature requirements of the propulsion components, and unknown orbital parameters. The thermal control system is implemented to maintain component temperatures within their respective operational limits throughout the mission, while also maintaining propulsion components at the high temperatures needed to allow gaseous iodine propellant to flow. The design includes heaters, insulation, radiators, coatings, and thermal straps. Currently, the maximum temperatures for several components are near to their maximum operation limit, and the battery is close to its minimum operation limit. Mitigation strategies and planned work to solve these challenges will be discussed.