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Completed TRL 5 (started at 4, targeting 5)
No cryogenic Reaction Control System (RCS) has ever flown in space. However, cryogenic propellants are baselined by Human Landing System (HLS) and Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) partners and represent a key technology for future in-situ resource utilization (ISRU)-manufactured propellants. Previous thermal vacuum testing at NASA GRC Plum Brook Facility revealed anomalous LOX/LCH4 ignition phenomena, where flame kernels failed to sustain combustion at ultra-cold hardware temperatures. This led to multiple ignition failures, where the engine failed to light during pulsed operation. In 2022, through CIF funding, the team successfully recreated the no-light condition using an upgraded low-cost Frost-Mint cryogenic test stand at JSC.
To address these ignition challenges, this project focused on thruster test stand improvements at ESTA and refining the ignition prediction model to support a hot-fire campaign aimed at achieving reliable ignition under extreme thermal-vacuum conditions. The project was able to successfully ignite the RCS engine at less than -180F, and under 10 torr. In addition, new modeling techniques were developed to explain past no-light events and establish a framework for lunar surface go/no-go ignition predictions based on real-time hardware conditions.
Cryogenic propellant systems are considered essential for NASA future human exploration, however they are notoriously difficult to ignite consistently. To explore the deep shadowed regions on the moon requires an engine that can tolerate those temperatures and ignite without the need for an external heat source. Reliable RCS ignition is an enabling technology for human Lunar and Martian exploration.
We are finalizing an RCS engine with heritage that could ignite in any plausible environment. The project successfully demonstrated reliable RCS ignition in ambient, vacuum, and thermal-vacuum environments. The project also began to incorporate design changes into the heritage RCS engine utilizing lessons learned from the hotfire campaign to produce an engine with high ignition reliability and high performance. New ignition modeling techniques were developed to inform ignition predictions that would be useful for lunar surface go no-go predictions anchored in real data. JSC also has a ready-to-use, upgraded cryogenic thruster test stand, Frost-Mint, with integrated vacuum tube and liquid nitrogen cooling system enabling low-cost cold vacuum ignition testing. This ignition work feeds directly into development of a lunar rescue hopper utilizing the same propellants and engines, HLS and CLPS.
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