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At least 109 records · Page 6

Materials Challenges in Space Exploration

United States civil space program administered by National Aeronautics and Space Administration has a new strategic direction to explore the solar system. This new 'vision for space exploration' encompasses a broad range of human and robotic missions, including the Moon. Mars and destinations beyond. These missions require advanced systems and capabilities that will accelerate the development of many critical technologies, including advanced materials and structural concepts. Specifically, it is planned to develop high-performance materials for vehicle structures, propulsion systems, and space suits; structural concepts for modular assembly for space infrastructure: lightweight deployable and inflatable structures for large space systems and crew habitats; and highly integrated structural systems and advanced thermal management systems for reducing launch mass and volume. This paper will present several materials challenges in advanced space systems-high performance structural and thermal materials, space durable materials, radiation protection materials, and nano-structural materials. Finally, the paper will take a look at the possibility of utilizing materials in situ, i.e., processing materials on the surface of the Moon and Mars.

Bhat, Biliyar N.↗

Materials Challenges in Space Exploration

United States civil space program administered by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a new strategic direction to explore the solar system. This new 'vision for space exploration' encompasses a broad range of human and robotic missions, including the Moon, Mars and destinations beyond. These missions require advanced systems and capabilities that will accelerate the development of many critical technologies, including advanced materials and structural concepts. Specifically, it is planned to develop high-peformance materials for vehicle structures, propulsion systems, and space suits; structural concepts for modular assembly for space infrastructure; lightweight deployable and inflatable structures for large space systems and crew habitats; and highly integrated structural systems and advanced thermal management systems for reducing launch mass and volume. This paper will present several materials challenges in advanced space systems-high performance structural and thermal materials, space durable materials, radiation protection materials, and nano- structural materials. The paper will also address smart materials and structures and examine space environmental effects on materials and methods of mitigating them. Finally, the paper will take a look at the possibility of utilizing materials in situ, i.e., processing and using desired materials on the surface of the Moon and Mars.

Bhat, Biliyar N.↗

LOFTID (Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator) PASS (Payload Adapter Separation System) Design & Qualification

On November 10, 2022, NASA, in partnership with United Launch Alliance (ULA), launched Low-earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) as a secondary payload on an Atlas V Centaur out of the Vandenburg Space Force Base (VSFB). After successfully delivering the primary payload, Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2), to a sun synchronous trajectory, the Centaur upper stage reoriented LOFTID onto the desired reentry trajectory. After conducting a de-orbit burn to enter the atmosphere the Payload Adaptor was ejected to expose the packed LOFTID vehicle. The LOFTID Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) was deployed and inflated. The Centaur pointed LOFTID to the desired entry attitude and spun the vehicle up to roughly three rpm before separating the reentry vehicle over the Middle East. The LOFTID vehicle flew freely before reentering the atmosphere over Alaska at >8km/sec and decelerating as designed. LOFTID demonstrated stable flight from hypersonic entry through subsonic parachute deployment. LOFTID was enabled by a mission-unique Payload Adapter Separation System (PASS) which separated the Payload Adapter prior to the start of the LOFTID flight demonstration, allowing the launch vehicle to accommodate a superstack of two independent, similarly sized payloads. This paper will discuss the design, development, and qualification effort of the LOFTID PASS.

Sean M Hancock↗

Mission and Design Sensitivities for Human Mars Landers Using Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerators

Landing humans on Mars is one of NASA's long term goals. NASA's Evolvable Mars Campaign (EMC) is focused on evaluating architectural trade options to define the capabilities and elements needed to sustain human presence on the surface of Mars. The EMC study teams have considered a variety of in-space propulsion options and surface mission options. Understanding how these choices affect the performance of the lander will allow a balanced optimization of this complex system of systems problem. This paper presents the effects of mission and vehicle design options on lander mass and performance. Beginning with Earth launch, options include fairing size assumptions, co-manifesting elements with the lander, and Earth-Moon vicinity operations. Capturing into Mars orbit using either aerocapture or propulsive capture is assessed. For entry, descent, and landing both storable as well as oxygen and methane propellant combinations are considered, engine thrust level is assessed, and sensitivity to landed payload mass is presented. This paper focuses on lander designs using the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerators, one of several entry system technologies currently considered for human missions.

Polsgrove, Tara P.↗

Mission and Design Sensitivities for Human Mars Landers Using Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerators

Landing humans on Mars is one of NASA's long term goals. The Evolvable Mars Campaign (EMC) is focused on evaluating architectural trade options to define the capabilities and elements needed for a sustainable human presence on the surface of Mars. The EMC study teams have considered a variety of in-space propulsion options and surface mission options. As we seek to better understand how these choices affect the performance of the lander, this work informs and influences requirements for transportation systems to deliver the landers to Mars and enable these missions. This paper presents the effects of mission and vehicle design options on lander mass and performance. Beginning with Earth launch, options include fairing size assumptions, co-manifesting other elements with the lander, and Earth-Moon vicinity operations. Capturing into Mars orbit using either aerocapture or propulsive capture is assessed. For entry, descent, and landing both storable as well as oxygen and methane propellant combinations are considered, engine thrust level is assessed, and sensitivity to landed payload mass is presented. This paper focuses on lander designs using the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerators (HIAD), one of several entry system technologies currently considered for human missions.

Polsgrove, Tara P.↗

HIAD on ULA (HULA) Orbital Reentry Flight Experiment Concept

This paper describes a proposed orbital velocity reentry flight test of a Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD). The flight test builds upon ground development activities that continue to advance the materials, design, and manufacturing techniques for the inflatable structure and flexible thermal protection system (F-TPS) that comprise the inflatable heat shield. While certain aspects of material and system performance can be assessed using a variety of ground testing capabilities, only orbital velocity energy on a trajectory through the gradient density of the atmosphere can impart the combined aerodynamic and aeroheating design environments in real time. To achieve this at limited cost, the HIAD would be delivered to a spin-stabilized entry trajectory as a secondary payload on the Centaur stage of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V launch vehicle. Initial trajectory studies indicate that the combination of launch vehicle capability and achievable reentry vehicle ballistic numbers make this a strategic opportunity for technology development. This 4 to 6 meter diameter scale aeroshell flight, referred to as HIAD on ULA (HULA), would also contribute to ULA asset recovery development. ULA has proposed that a HIAD be utilized as part of the Sensible, Modular, Autonomous Return Technology (SMART) initiative to enable recovery of the Vulcan launch vehicle booster main engines [1], including a Mid-Air Recovery (MAR) to gently return these assets for reuse. Whereas HULA will attain valuable aerothermal and structural response data toward advancing HIAD technology, it may also provide a largest-to-date scaled flight test of the MAR operation, which in turn would allow the examination of a nearly pristine post-entry aeroshell. By utilizing infrared camera imaging, HULA will also attain aft-side thermal response data, enhancing understanding of the aft side aerothermal environment, an area of high uncertainty. The aeroshell inflation will utilize a heritage design compressed gas system to minimize development costs. The data will be captured to both an onboard recorder and a recorder that is jettisoned and recovered separately from the reentry vehicle to mitigate risk. This paper provides an overview, including the architecture and flight concept of operations, for the proposed HULA flight experiment.

Dinonno, J. M.↗

The Development of a Thermally Enhanced Emergency Fire Shelter

Since its founding in 1905, the U.S. Forest Service has been responsible for maintaining public lands. The Forest Service and other public lands agencies respond to an average of 73,000 wildfires per year, and responding firefighters are required to carry a number of safety gear items, including the M2002 emergency fire shelter. The emergency fire shelter is intended to serve as a last resort means of protection in case a firefighter's escape route has been compromised in the face of an approaching flame front. No fire shelter deployment tragedy has been more costly than the 2013 Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona, where 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots perished. After the tragedy at Yarnell Hill, the Forest Service decided to expedite the next redesign cycle of the fire shelter in order to improve its ability to withstand direct contact with flames. Engineers at NASA Langley Research Center have spent the better part of a decade developing flexible thermal materials for use in inflatable aerodynamic decelerators and have demonstrated their performance in the IRVE-2 and IRVE-3 flight programs (Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment). NASA engineers recognized an opportunity to leverage their experience and knowledge with flexible thermal protection systems to potentially improve the fire shelter's resistance to direct flame contact, and have been working directly with the U.S. Forest Service to achieve this goal. They launched the CHIEFS project (Convective Heating Improvement for Emergency Fire Shelters) in 2014. Over the past three years, CHIEFS has screened over 270 unique material layups, and tested over 30 unique full scale shelter concepts in an effort to achieve a game changing improvement to the thermal protection of the fire shelter, while maintaining minimal mass and volume. This paper will discuss CHIEFS' 1st and 2nd generation fire shelter development efforts and test results.

Fody, Joshua M.↗

Wavefront Analysis of Adaptive Telescope

The motivation for this work came from a NASA Headquarters interest in investigating design concepts for a large space telescope employing active optics technology. Current and foreseeable launch vehicles will be limited to carrying around 4-5 meter diameter objects. Thus, if a large, filled-aperture telescope (6-20 meters in diameter) is to be placed in space, it will be required to have a deployable primary mirror. Such a mirror may be an inflatable membrane or a segmented mirror consisting of many smaller pieces. In any case, it is expected that the deployed primary will not be of sufficient quality to achieve diffraction-limited performance for its aperture size. Thus, an active optics system will be needed to correct for initial as well as environmentally-produced primary figure errors. Marshall Space Flight Center has developed considerable expertise in the area of active optics with the PAMELA test-bed. The combination of this experience along with the Marshall optical shop's work in mirror fabrication made MSFC the logical choice to lead NASA's effort to develop active optics technology for large, space-based, astronomical telescopes. Furthermore, UAH's support of MSFC in the areas of optical design, fabrication, and testing of space-based optical systems placed us in a key position to play a major role in the development of this future-generation telescope. A careful study of the active optics components had to be carried out in order to determine control segment size, segment quality, and segment controllability required to achieve diffraction-limited resolution with a given primary mirror. With this in mind, UAH undertook the following effort to provide NASA/MSFC with optical design and analysis support for the large telescope study. All of the work performed under this contract has already been reported, as a team member with MSFC, to NASA Headquarters in a series of presentations given between May and December of 1995. As specified on the delivery order, this report simply summarizes the material with the various UAH-written presentation packages attached as appendices.

Hadaway, James B.↗

A Flexible Lunar Architecture for Exploration (FLARE) Supporting NASA’s Artemis Program

The Flexible Lunar Architecture for Exploration (FLARE) is a concept to deliver four crew to the lunar surface for a minimum of seven days and then return them safely to Earth. FLARE can be implemented whenever the component vehicles are operational. FLARE was developed as an alternative to NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) reference architecture from the Design Analysis Cycle (DAC) #2 created in 2019. The DAC2 guidelines required utilization of the Gateway vehicle in a Near- Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO). Instead, FLARE chooses a Low Lunar Frozen Polar Orbit (LLFPO) for lunar rendezvous of components, and an optional Gateway vehicle. The LLFPO provides a stable orbit that overflies the south pole every 2 h, ensuring easy access to the lunar surface for surface aborts with a much lower propellant requirement than NRHO. The minimum FLARE concept uses one Space Launch System (SLS) launch, one Orion, one European Service Module (ESM), and one human lander (launched on commercial vehicle(s)). FLARE adds the SpaceTug, based upon the mature and successful ULA “Common” Centaur Upper Stage vehicle, with modifications to create an Earth-Moon transfer vehicle. In the FLARE baseline mission, the SpaceTug provides propulsion needed to return the Orion + ESM from LLFPO to Earth. The SpaceTug also provides propulsion to deliver the separate human lander components – the Descent Element (DE) and the Ascent Element (AE) - from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to LLFPO. The SLS Block 1 then launches the Orion + ESM and completes a rendezvous with the mated DE + AE components in LLFPO. FLARE offers optional phases beyond the baseline mission. The SpaceTug can deliver components of the planned Gateway, including the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and the Habitable and Logistics Outpost (HALO), to LLFPO. FLARE provides an option to deliver precursor equipment to the lunar surface to enhance and extend the human mission. With these components, including an inflatable habitation module and airlock, individual crew mobility vehicle(s), an In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) demonstration, and science and technology experiments, the crew can explore and conduct science on the lunar surface for up to 14 days.

Moon 2024↗

Entry, Descent, and Landing Technology Concept Trade Study for Increasing Payload Mass to the Surface of Mars

A trade study was conducted that compared various entry, descent, and landing technologies and concepts for placing an 1,800 kg payload on the surface of Mars. The purpose of this trade study was to provide data, and make recommendations, that could be used in making decisions regarding which new technologies and concepts should be pursued. Five concepts were investigated, each using a different combination of new technologies: 1) a Baseline concept using the least new technologies, 2) Aerocapture and Entry from Orbit, 3) Inflatable Aeroshell, 4) Mid L/D Aeroshell-A (high ballistic coefficient), and 5) Mid L/D Aeroshell-B (low ballistic coefficient). All concepts were optimized to minimize entry mass subject to a common set of key requirements. These key requirements were: A) landing a payload mass of 1,800 kg, B) landing at an altitude 2.5 km above the MOLA areoid, C) landing with a descent rate of 2.5 m/s, and D) using a single launch vehicle available within the NASA Expendable Launch Vehicle Contract without resorting to in-space assembly. Additional constraints were implemented, some common to all concepts and others specific to the new technologies used. Among the findings of this study are the following observations. Concepts using blunt-body aeroshells (1, 2, and 3 above) had entry masses between 4,028 kg and 4,123 kg. Concepts using mid L/D aeroshells (4 and 5 above) were significantly heavier with entry masses of 5,292 kg (concept 4) and 4,812 kg (concept 5). This increased weight was mainly due to the aeroshell. Based on a comparison of the concepts it was recommended that: 1) re-qualified and/or improved TPS materials be developed, 2) large subsonic parachutes be qualified. Aerocapture was identified as a promising concept, but system issues beyond the scope of this study need to be investigated. Inflatable aeroshells were identified as a promising new technology, but they require additional technology maturation work. For the class of missions investigated in this trade study, mid L/D aeroshells were not competitive on an entry mass basis as compared to blunt-body aeroshells.

Cruz, Juan R.↗

Design and Development of an In-Space Deployable Sun Shield for the Atlas Centaur

The Centaur, by virtue of its use of high specific-impulse (Isp) LO2/LH2 propellants, has initial mass-to-orbit launch requirements less than half of those upper stages using storable propellants. That is, for Earth escape or GSO missions the Centaur is half the launch weight of a storable propellant upper stage. A drawback to the use of Liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, at 90 K and 20 K respectively, over storable propellants is the necessity of efficient cryogen storage techniques that minimize boil-off from thermal radiation in space. Thermal blankets have been used successfully to shield both the Atlas Centaur and Titan Centaur. These blankets are protected from atmospheric air loads during launch by virtue of the fact that the Centaur is enclosed within the payload fairing. The smaller Atlas V vehicle, the Atlas 400, has the Centaur exposed to the atmosphere during launch, and therefore, to date has not flown with thermal blankets shielding the Centaur. A design and development effort is underway to fly a thermal shield on the Atlas V 400 vehicle that is not put in place until after the payload fairing jettisons. This can be accomplished by the use of an inflatable and deployable thermal blanket referred to as the Centaur Sun Shield (CSS). The CSS design is also scalable for use on a Delta upper stage, and the technology potentially could be used for telescope shades, re-entry shields, solar sails and propellant depots. A Phase I effort took place during 2007 in a partnership between ULA and ILC Dover which resulted in a deployable proof-of-concept Sun Shield being demonstrated at a test facility in Denver. A Phase H effort is underway during 2008 with a partnership between ULA, ILC, NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) and NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to define requirements, determine materials and fabrication techniques, and to test components in a vacuum chamber at cold temperatures. This paper describes the Sun Shield development work to date, and the future plans leading up to a flight test in the 2011 time frame.

Dew, Michael↗

Aerocapture Technologies

Aeroassist technology development is a vital part of the NASA In-Space Propulsion Technology (ISPT) Program. One of the main focus areas of ISPT is aeroassist technologies through the Aerocapture Technology (AT) Activity. Within the ISPT, the current aeroassist technology development focus is aerocapture. Aerocapture relies on the exchange of momentum with an atmosphere to achieve thrust, in this case a decelerating thrust leading to orbit capture. Without aerocapture, a substantial propulsion system would be needed on the spacecraft to perform the same reduction of velocity. This could cause reductions in the science payload delivered to the destination, increases in the size of the launch vehicle (to carry the additional fuel required for planetary capture) or could simply make the mission impossible due to additional propulsion requirements. The AT is advancing each technology needed for the successful implementation of aerocapture in future missions. The technology development focuses on both rigid aeroshell systems as well as the development of inflatable aerocapture systems, advanced aeroshell performance sensors, lightweight structure and higher temperature adhesives. Inflatable systems such as tethered trailing ballutes ('balloon parachutes'), clamped ballutes, and inflatable aeroshells are also under development. Aerocapture-specific computational tools required to support future aerocapture missions are also an integral part of the ATP. Tools include: engineering reference atmosphere models, guidance and navigation, aerothermodynamic modeling, radiation modeling and flight simulation. Systems analysis plays a key role in the AT development process. The NASA in-house aerocapture systems analysis team has been taken with multiple systems definition and concept studies to complement the technology development tasks. The team derives science requirements, develops guidance and navigation algorithms, as well as engineering reference atmosphere models and aeroheating specifications. The study team also creates designs for the overall mission spacecraft. Presentation slides are provided to further describe the aerocapture project.

Keys, Andrew S.↗

Development of an Inflatable Airlock for Deep Space Exploration

An airlock is a required component of a crewed spacecraft to allow for maintenance, repair and exploration outside of a habitable vehicle. Airlock designs in use today are rigid pressure vessels with complex hatches and seals. Inflatable structures technology utilizes high strength fabric materials and internal pressure to create a stiffened pressure vessel that can replace traditional rigid primary structure in a habitable spacecraft. The flexibility of fabric structures allows them to be compactly stowed for launch and expanded in space. Recent developments towards the design of an inflatable airlock structure show feasibility and a significant launch volume savings over a traditional metallic design. This paper provides a detailed summary of historical and current work in inflatable airlock development and provides guidance for the design of a soft goods airlock system. Accommodations for withstanding crew-induced loads, provisions for human interfaces, the design and development of an internal substructure to provide translation aids and restraints, the thermal considerations of a fabric shell, micrometeoroid protection in deep space, and packaging and deployment of an inflatable airlock are all discussed.

Deep Space Exploration↗

Fluid-Structure Interaction Simulations of the ASPIRE SR03 Supersonic Parachute Flight Test

Research into parachute performance continues to be a source of significant investment from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to mitigate risks and to enable a variety of exploration missions, including landing on Mars as well as returning to Earth. The cost of flight tests to certify any changes to the current state-of-the-art parachute designs limits the development of next generation parachute systems. Fluid-structure interaction simulations could help accelerate this process once validated. The Launch, Ascent, and Vehicle Aerodynamics team is developing the capability to perform such fluid-structure interaction simulations by coupling a higher-order Cartesian immersed boundary computational fluid dynamics solver with adaptive mesh refinement to a finite element structural dynamics solver in space and time. We continue the effort to validate this tool with the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiments SR03 flight test featuring a strengthened parachute akin to the Mars 2020 mission that landed the Perseverance rover on Mars, and a higher freestream dynamic pressure prior to inflation. The effect of the flow conditions’ angle of attack and of the initial parachute shape are quantified. The impact of relaxing modeling assumptions with regards to radial stiffeners on the parachute canopy is also investigated. Results demonstrate improvements in agreement with the pull force recorded during the SR03 flight test as the initial conditions of the flow and parachute are brought closer to those experienced in flight, and further improved when the radial stiffener modeling assumptions are relaxed.

ESM↗

Fluid-Structure Interaction Simulations of the ASPIRE SR03 Supersonic Parachute Flight Test

Research into parachute performance continues to be a source of significant investment from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to mitigate risks and to enable a variety of exploration missions, including landing on Mars as well as returning to Earth. The cost of flight tests to certify any changes to the current state-of-the-art parachute designs limits the development of next generation parachute systems. Fluid-structure interaction simulations could help accelerate this process once validated. The Launch, Ascent, and Vehicle Aerodynamics team is developing the capability to perform such fluid-structure interaction simulations by coupling a higher-order Cartesian immersed boundary computational fluid dynamics solver with adaptive mesh refinement to a finite element structural dynamics solver in space and time. We continue the effort to validate this tool with the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiments SR03 flight test featuring a strengthened parachute akin to the Mars 2020 mission that landed the Perseverance rover on Mars, and a higher freestream dynamic pressure prior to inflation. The effect of the flow conditions’ angle of attack and of the initial parachute shape are quantified. The impact of relaxing modeling assumptions with regards to radial stiffeners on the parachute canopy is also investigated. Results demonstrate improvements in agreement with the pull force recorded during the SR03 flight test as the initial conditions of the flow and parachute are brought closer to those experienced in flight, and further improved when the radial stiffener modeling assumptions are relaxed.

ESM↗

Project UM-HAUL: A self-unloading reusable lunar lander

The establishment of a lunar base is technologically and financially challenging. Given the necessary resources and political support, it can be done. In addition to the geopolitical obstacles, however, there are logistical problems involved in establishing such bases that can only be overcome with the acquisition of a significant transportation and communications network in the Earth-Moon spatial region. Considering the significant number of payloads that will be required in this process, the mass-specific cost of launching these payloads, and the added risk and cost of human presence in space, it is clearly desirable to automate major parts of such an operation. One very costly and time-consuming factor in this picture is the delivery of payloads to the Moon. Foreseeable payloads would include atmospheric modules, inflatable habitat kits, energy and oxygen plant elements, ground vehicles, laboratory modules, crew supplies, etc. The duration of high-risk human presence on the Moon could be greatly reduced if all such payloads were delivered to the prospective base site in advance of crew arrival. In this view, the idea of a 'Self-Unloading Reusable Lunar Lander' (SURLL) arises naturally. The general scenario depicts the lander being brought to low lunar orbit (LLO) from Earth atop a generic Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV). From LLO, the lander shuttles payloads down to the lunar surface, where, by means of some resident, detachable unloading device, it deploys the payloads and returns to orbit. The general goal is for the system to perform with maximum payload capability, automation, and reliability, while also minimizing environmental hazards, servicing needs, and mission costs. Our response to this demand is UM-HAUL, or the UnManned Heavy pAyload Unloader and Lander. The complete study includes a system description, along with a preliminary cost analysis and a design status assessment.

Source record↗

The Deep Space 4/Champollion Comet Rendezvous and Lander Technology Demonstration Mission

The Deep Space 4/Champollion mission is designed to test and validate technologies for landing on and anchoring to small bodies, and sample collection and transfer, in preparation for future sample return missions from comets, asteroids, and satellites. in addition, DS-4 will test technologies for advanced, multi-engine solar electric propulsion (SEP) systems, inflatable-rigidizable solar arrays, autonomous navigation and precision guidance for landing, autonomous hazard detection and avoidance, and advanced integrated avionics and packaging concepts. Deep Space-4/Champollion consists of two spacecraft: an orbiter/carrier vehicle which includes the multi-engine SEP stage, and a lander, called Champollion, which will descend to the surface of the 46P/Tempel 1 cometary nucleus. The spacecraft will launch in April, 2003 and land on the comet in September, 2006 Deep Space 4/Champollion is a joint project between NASA and CNES, the French space agency.

Smythe, William D.↗

Thin Films and Inflatable Applications in Exploration Habitat Structures

NASA's vision to return to the Moon and then extend human exploration to Mars will benefit from human habitat technology development using new and creative applications of polymer materials and concepts. Thin Film and Inflatable (TFVI) materials are particularly interesting for exploration applications due to their light weight and low volume. Whereas TF/I materials can be launched and carried from Earth to multiple and distant exploration sites without the constraints of upmass limitations, eventually, with recycling and reclamation efforts, these materials may be developed using in-situ resources. These materials can be useful for fabricating, patching and repairing vehicles, replacement parts and even habitat structures, as well as for developing stand-alone habitat structure technologies and for nested and integrated applications. TF/Is can also be ideal environmental containment vessels within lunar or Martian regolith walls or as liners inside caves or raw regolith exterior structures for the provisions of atmosphere containment, debris protection and cleanliness. Further, TFOs can be specialized and matured for various and diverse applications. The desired range of applications will require materials specification for such properties as transparency, elasticity, thermal conductivity, mechanical strength, heat capacity, chemical resistance, and permeability. This paper will discuss Marshall Space Flight Center's plans to analyze and prioritize TF/I materials properties and classifications and to develop applications for these highly desirable materials in human habitat construction projects on the Moon and Mars.

Frazier, Donald O.↗