Low Cost Carbon-Carbon Composites for Hot Structures

The innovation proposed here is a novel carbon-carbon composite (CCC) manufacturing method that allows rapid manufacturing of relatively thick carbon-carbon structures and robust through-thickness reinforcement that significantly simplifies the attachment of a hot structure to a cold structure, as encountered in the interface of an aeroshell and the underlying structure in a hypersonic vehicle. This results in the ability to make a highly integrated, load‑bearing, unitized skin‑stringer‑frame carbon‑carbon aeroshell that includes a mechanically and thermally advantageous joint to an internal cold structure such as a composite tank. The manufacturing innovations include a precursor resin improvement, a through-thickness reinforcement improvement, and an overall aeroshell design improvement that, when taken together, enable a revolutionary approach to hot structure design and manufacturing that has the potential to greatly improve performance, robustness, and reliability of such systems while precluding the need for a separate thermal protection system (TPS).

Aeroshells for descent/reentry missions, structures for hypersonic vehicles, propulsion structures such as nozzle extensions.

Aeroshells, hot structures, and propulsion components for launch, reentry, and hypersonic vehicles.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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