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At least 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Mechanical Erosion Modeling of TPS Materials

This work describes the development of a model that accounts for the additional surface recession in Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) materials as a result of mechanical erosion due to high shear conditions during atmospheric entry. A computational solid mechanics module was integrated within the Porous material Analysis Toolbox (PATO) based on OpenFOAM. The mechanical erosion was modeled in three steps: first, the implemented stress analysis solver computes the stress and the displacement fields for orthotropic materials using the wall shear stress tensor as a boundary condition; then, regions on the surface where the stress meets the failure criteria are identified; and last, the mesh is moved accordingly to remove the failed material. The outcome is a model capable to predict the total recession of the material due to surface chemistry and mechanical erosion. Results will be included in the final paper after verifying and completing the study.

Stress Analysis↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Mechanical Erosion Modeling of TPS Materials

This work describes the development of a model that accounts for the additional surface recession in Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) materials as a result of mechanical erosion due to high shear conditions during atmospheric entry. A computational solid mechanics module was integrated within the Porous material Analysis Toolbox (PATO) based on OpenFOAM. The mechanical erosion was modeled in three steps: first, the implemented stress analysis solver computes the stress and the displacement fields for orthotropic materials using the wall shear stress tensor as a boundary condition; then, regions on the surface where the stress meets the failure criteria are identified; and last, the mesh is moved accordingly to remove the failed material. The outcome is a model capable to predict the total recession of the material due to surface chemistry and mechanical erosion. Results will be included in the final paper after verifying and completing the study.

Stress Analysis↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Conformal PICA TPS– Enabling Future Nasa Planetary Science Missions

Initial development of Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (C-PICA) ablative TPS occurred under NASA’s Hypersonics Project in the 2000’s and demonstrated very low through-the-thickness thermal conductivity compared to state-of-the-art Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA). PICA, which was first demonstrated on Stardust, has some inherent limitations that C-PICA improves on, primarily strain to failure. More recently C-PICA has been further matured and a family of C-PICA materials are now ready for consideration as an enabling technology for New Frontiers and other NASA missions. C-PICA has several improvements compared to PICA including: - Higher strain to failure and lower thermal conductivity (up to 55% less than PICA depending on C-PICA variant) - CTE comparable to typical composite carrier structures and also suitable for metallic substructures given high strain to failure - Temperature independent mechanical properties - Suited for single piece (up to ~ 1.5m) or tiled configurations - Larger tiles leading to reduced integration complexity compared to tiled PICA - Reduced mass compared to PICA due to reduced thermal conductivity C-PICA has been tested at heat fluxes ranging from 250-1850 W/cm^2, and shear pressures of 200Pa at 400W/cm^2 with excellent performance. Expertise on manufacturing and integration of C-PICA reside at NASA, and NASA can transition the technology to interested parties via technology transfer.

thermal protection↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

State of the Art Thermal Protection Systems at NASA for Outer Planet Probes and TPS Developments in Support of Mars Sample Return Mission

In the recent NASA Planetary Science Decadal Survey (2023-2032) the committee recommended that the highest scientific priority of NASA’s robotic exploration efforts this decade should be completion of Mars Sample Return (MSR) and recommended to prioritize the Uranus Orbiter and Probe as the highest-priority new flagship missions for the next decade while Saturn Probe is one of the themes still under consideration for New Frontiers. This short course presentation will discuss relevant environments for outer planet missions and TPS materials under development at NASA and their readiness to meet mission needs. In addition the presentation will discuss the status of thermal protection system for the MSR Earth Entry System that brings the Martian samples safely through the Earth’s atmosphere.

Thermal Protection Systems↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA's Innovative Entry Systems and TPS Technologies Enabling Commercial Space Missions

For over six decades, the NASA Ames Entry Systems and Technology Division has been a cornerstone of U.S. space exploration, delivering critical atmospheric entry solutions since Project Mercury and now increasingly supporting the commercial space sector. The Division provides reliable entry system solutions through a unique blend of expertise, national facilities, and systems integration knowledge, a combination that is difficult to replicate outside a dedicated government entity. Consistently successful, the TS Division remains central to NASA’s exploration objectives and significantly contributes to the transfer of technology to the commercial space sector, supporting more than ten commercial space companies and supplying flight heatshields to three of them in the past five years. Its strengths in Thermal Protection System (TPS) materials, aerothermodynamics, ground test facilities, and Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) systems engineering drive rapid development and sustained U.S. competitiveness in space. The Division's expertise in reusable and ablative thermal protection systems, as well as mechanically deployable entry systems primarily developed for NASA missions, now benefits commercial space missions. This presentation will highlight the vision and needs of these commercial space companies, how NASA-invented technologies meet mission requirements, and how these technologies enable and distinguish their efforts.

Ethiraj Venkatapathy↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Nasa’S Development of Merino - A New Family of Advanced, Low-Cost, Non-Woven Ablative Tps Materials

The Mars Exploration Program (MEP) and NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) are investing in approaches to reduce the cost and increase the frequency of future Mars missions while also seeking to help emerging commercial space companies which have an immediate need to demonstrate their capability to return samples from space - at a fraction of the cost of a conventional NASA mission. Of particular interest and relevance to commercial space and low-cost Mars, is the work developing and advancing MERINO-LD, an ablative carbon/phenolic blanket that is ~75% faster to produce with an estimated ~75% reduction in cost when compared to rigid PICA or Conformal-PICA TPS.

Matthew Gasch↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Development of Advanced Ablative Carbon Phenolic TPS for Future NASA Missions and Commercial Space

Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) is a low-density carbon phenolic ablator that has been used as the planetary entry heatshield for several NASA missions since the late 90’s. Its low density and efficient performance characteristics have proven effective for use from Discovery to Flagship class missions, from Sample Return missions such as Stardust, OSIRIS-REx to large Mars lander missions such as MSL and Mars 2020. Continued development of a mass efficient, compliant version of PICA that use a carbon felt as the substrate will be presented. The felt based versions of PICA known as Conformal PICA (C-PICA) is comparable in terms of peak heat-flux capabilities compared to standard PICA. Additionally, a novel all felt PICA-Flex offers further reductions in density, with higher thermal protection efficiency resulting in additional mass savings beyond C-PICA. Furthermore, the compliant nature of these materials allows for application without Strain Isolation Pad to a wide variety of substrates, making attractive for commercial low earth orbit missions as well as NASA’s aerocapture missions to Ice Giants. NASA is currently working with several commercial partners (Varda and Inversion Space) to Technology Transfer C/S-PICA variants for commercial LEO missions. Preliminary thermal and mechanical tests have been conducted comparing the performance of Conformal and Soft-PICA and PICA-Flex materials.

Flexible Ablative TPS↗
NASA NTRS1971

Arc jet tests of metallic TPS materials.

Seven thoria dispersed nickel base alloys and one cobalt base alloy, candidates for the Metallic Thermal Protection System for the Space Shuttle Vehicle, were tested simultaneously in an arc jet at a nominal test temperature of 1366 deg K (2000 deg F) and pressure of 0.01 atmospheres. The degradation of the materials after 50 one half-hour cycles in the arc jet simulating Space Shuttle entry conditions was determined utilizing techniques including X-ray diffraction, metallography, and electron beam microprobe.

Centolanzi, F. J.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Field repair of coated columbium Thermal Protection System (TPS)

The requirements for field repair of coated columbian panels were studied, and the probable cause of damage were identified. The following types of repair methods were developed, and are ready for use on an operational system: replacement of fused slurrey silicide coating by a short processing cycle using a focused radiant spot heater; repair of the coating by a glassy matrix ceramic composition which is painted or sprayed over the defective area; and repair of the protective coating by plasma spraying molybdenum disilicide over the damaged area employing portable equipment.

Culp, J. D.↗