Regolith Dust and Radiation-Tolerant Bearing

A radiation-resistant and superhard material for dust-resistant mechanical bearing applications on the lunar surface will be tested and demonstrated under this project. This highly incompressible ceramic material is able to be formed into intricate bearing geometries directly from powder to create dense, hard, geometrically precise, and wear-resistant bearing surfaces. This new material is more than 30% lighter than the chrome steel commonly used for bearings, and about 15% lighter than Nitinol, which NASA has been recently investigating for bearing applications. A roller bearing using this new material that is tolerant of regolith dust will be designed, fabricated, and performance tested. Radiation resistance testing of this material will also be performed in partnership with Idaho National Laboratory. Performance testing of assembled bearings from this material will be tested for lunar dust resistance, and at temperature extremes ranging from -240 C to 130 C. At the conclusion of the Phase II, a functioning roller bearing would have been tested in the simulated conditions and delivered to NASA for further evaluation. A radiation-resistant and superhard material for dust-resistant mechanical bearing applications on the lunar surface will be tested and demonstrated under this project.  This highly incompressible ceramic material is able to be formed into intricate bearing geometries to create dense, hard, geometrically precise, and wear-resistant bearing surfaces.  This new material is more than 30% lighter than the chrome steel commonly used for bearings, and about 15% lighter than Nitinol, which NASA has been recently investigating for bearing applications.  A roller bearing using this new material that is tolerant of regolith dust will be designed, fabricated, and performance tested.  Radiation resistance testing of this material will also be performed with INL. Performance testing of assembled bearings from this material will be tested for lunar dust resistance, and at temperature extremes ranging from -240 C to 130 °C.   At the conclusion of the Phase II, a functioning roller bearing would have been tested in the simulated conditions and delivered to NASA for further evaluation.      The goal of the Phase II effort is to engineer and manufacture complete, assembled, roller bearings using our material, and perform extensive testing under relevant conditions simulating the lunar surface. To accomplish these objectives, we will also further develop the microstructure to optimize the density, strength, and surface finish of the material. Phase I demonstrated the technical feasibility of producing bearing geometry components from the material formulation. These samples were characterized for surface roughness, hardness, wear resistance, coefficient of friction, and thermal conductivity/CTE. Demonstrated values appeared promising, and significant further improvements seem probable in the Phase II effort. The manufacturing of the bearing material billets will be scaled and we will perform detailed engineering, fabrication, and testing of assembled bearings for performance. Also, a significant effort to study the new material in a radiation environment that meets the target lunar surface environment, side by side with baseline materials of other mature bearing materials, will be useful result of this effort to NASA as they seek to qualify new materials for bearings and radiation shielding for Human’s return to the Moon. A complete assembled bearing made from this new material will be delivered to NASA at the conclusion of the project.      

The new bearing being developed will be applicable to small, precision mechanical bearing applications that can operate reliably without environmental protection housing in the extreme environments of NASA missions. Many conventional bearing materials and required lubricants are not tolerant of these environments. The proposed material is radiation-resistant and capable of operation without lubricant, at a significantly lower mass than current bearing metal alloys.   This fully-ceramic bearing material technology has the potential to be utilized in high temperature and corrosive bearing applications in the oilfield, refinery, chemical processing, and metal processing industries.  Additionally, non-bearing uses include exploiting the high hardness of the material within the industrial forming, cutting, and grinding tool industries. 

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — 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.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.