A Fault-Tolerant Heat Exchanger for Manned Spacecraft

The specific proposed innovation is a compact, fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger that is fault tolerant because the working fluids cannot come into contact even if there are large internal leaks. Manned spacecraft typically use water-based, secondary coolant loops to isolate the crew from toxic or asphyxiating fluids (such as ammonia or freon) in the central thermal bus. The innovation is a fabrication approach that uses Creare's precision stamping and core bonding technologies to create a heat exchanger that isolates the fluids while achieving excellent thermal performance. The proposed heat exchanger meets the subtopic requirements by minimizing the size and mass needed for thermal control on manned space missions with a fail-safe, efficient, lightweight, and reliable heat exchanger that can be used for manned spacecraft and planetary bases. The overall objective is to fabricate, test, and deliver a prototype heat exchanger to NASA for qualification testing. The objectives of Phase I are to prove feasibility by fabricating and testing a small-scale, model heat exchanger core.