WHILE EVALUATING LUNAR ASCENT AND DESCENT STAGE PROPELLANT ACQUISITION OPTIONS IN 2008 AND 2009 FOR NASA GR…

Public award description

WHILE EVALUATING LUNAR ASCENT AND DESCENT STAGE PROPELLANT ACQUISITION OPTIONS IN 2008 AND 2009 FOR NASA GRC, IES CONCEIVED A NOVEL, FLEXIBLE SCREEN PROPELLANT MANAGEMENT DEVICE (PMD). THE CONCEPT PROVIDES A HIGHLY SIMPLIFIED AND EASY TO BUILD PMD AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO A TOTAL COMMUNICATION DEVICE OR ONE INCORPORATING A START BASKET. WATER BENCH TESTS WITH A VERY PRIMITIVE PROTOTYPE YIELDED ENCOURAGING RESULTS, AND ADDITIONAL, SIMPLE BENCH-LEVEL TESTING WITH LN2 WAS ALSO ENCOURAGING. AN OPPORTUNITY EXISTS TO REFINE THE CONCEPT, DEVELOP A LARGER, MORE FLIGHT-LIKE APPARATUS, AND TEST IT IN A CRYOGENIC TANK CURRENTLY BEING DESIGNED AND SUBSEQUENTLY INTENDED FOR USE ON THE CRYOGENIC ORBITAL TESTBED (CRYOTE) EXPERIMENT. DESIGNING A FULL SIZE FLIGHT QUALIFIABLE FLEXIBLE SCREEN PMD UNDER A PHASE 1 SBIR EFFORT, FOLLOWED BY HARDWARE FABRICATION, QUALIFICATION AND FLIGHT DEMONSTRATION ON A FLIGHT TEST PLATFORM CONCURRENTLY IN DEVELOPMENT, WILL ALLOW THIS CONCEPT TO BE DEMONSTRATED FOR A FRACTION OF THE COST THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED FOR A DEDICATED FLIGHT OF A FLEXIBLE PMD EXPERIMENT. THE CONCEPT TRL SHOULD MOVE FROM 3 TO 5 DURING PHASE 1, AND 5 TO 7 DURING PHASE 2.