Development of a High Strength Low Thermal Diffusivity Insulator Material

The C9 team proposes to exploit the success of the phase I effort by fabricating and doing full scale testing of the Throttling Divert and Attitude Control System(TDACS) Throat support for the Block IIA or Block IIB upgrades of the SM-3 Missile Defense system. The desired goal is to be production ready for BlockIIA which is currently in Critical Design Review with full scale testing in the 3rd quarter of 2011. The program is perfectly timed for the BlockIIB upgrade program which has just been kicked-off. Developing a High Strength Thermal Insulator is critical to meeting the goals of the SM-3 TDACS program due to the high temperature soaks that result from long duration throttling of the TDACS. Full scale in the Aerojet 5"TDACS and Preliminary Engineering Test Motor(PETM) will be conducted at Aerojet in Rancho Cordova, California. Finite Element Analysis will be performed by Material Research and Design in Wayne, Pennsylvania partially funded by their just let contract for trade studies for Block IIB and by an enhancement to their existing Phase II SBIR supporting the development of several MDA SBIR material development programs. The project includes development of a design allowable data base and manufacturing qualification.