Integration of Dust Resisting Secondary Emission Engineered Passive Thermal Control Material Systems (TCMS) Coating (PTCS-DUST-SEQ)

This SBIR program will mature plasma spray coating technologies developed in SBIR Phase II Program NNSCC21C0514 that were found to be optically stable in the presence of dusty and severe space environments while operating on the lunar surface or lunar orbit.  The program will establish processing procedures for coating application of the seven identified material formulations onto three commonly used structural substrates (aluminum, graphite epoxy composite, and carbon-carbon composite), and should evaluate and verify the performance of these applied systems in relevant and bounding conditions for dust mitigation and reflectance stability in UV and radiation environments.  These substrates are targeted to support projects in extreme, dusty environments including future lunar surface and orbiting programs radiator designs.  Additionally, this effort should define infrastructure requirements to manufacture sufficient quantities of materials to support upcoming NASA missions and establish processing envelops for high reliability performance for applications using the plasma spray technology.  The effort will also develop touchup and repair techniques employing new low pH binder systems for plasma and traditionally sprayed systems.  Lastly, the program will process engineering development hardware on a variety of typical substrates and validate performance of these scaled up formulations on project hardware.  Processing protocols and standard operating procedures will be developed for each of the formulations on the different hardware substrates and configurations, thereby providing a straightforward processing pathway for the different mission goals.  The results of this program should sufficiently elevate the maturity of the coating technology and identified material systems to a level for insertion into a Lunar flight project demonstration test and/or flight mission.

​The technologies maturing in this sequential SBIR meet the requirements for a radiator coating that will maintain high optical performance with stability in the space environments; be applicable to complex, non-planar surfaces that may range in extreme temperatures; and be able to mitigate dust contamination threats from the lunar surface.The plasma spray technology allows the application of a densified, high pigment to binder ratio (PBR) coating to a variety of substrates and configurations. The formulations contain high performance, space stable white pigments which meet charge dissipation requirements in a densified matrix.  This low porosity, densified matrix does not easily allow small particle infiltration that is commonly seen in standard silicate radiator coatings.  The nature of the pigments allow for secondary electron emission when exposed to the charging environment which results in the neutralization of the surface charge buildup on the coating.  This differential charging with lunar regolith particles is a strong attractive force for the regolith transport and adhesion to the surface.  By negating this electromotive force as well as have a densified surface, adhesion of the regolith to the surface is reduced.Additionally, maturation of a secondary low pH, high PBR coating system for touch up and repair of plasma sprayed coatings may be applicable to traditional spray application processes.  These traditionally sprayed coatings may also have the space and dust environmental stability desired.  Current state of the art technology uses a higher pH binder system but operates at much lower PBRs and higher porosities which are impacted significantly by dust intrusion.

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