Castable Inorganic Composite Potting Material for High-Temperature Electromagnets

This Phase II sequential (P2S) proposal is being submitted upon invitation by NASA after the successful completion of HiFunda’s Phase II SBIR project. The Phase II project was responsive to NASA’s request for proposals to address improved materials or fabrication processes to meet the demanding requirements for high-temperature electromagnet (HTEM) coils in higher-power nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) using Hall-effect thrusters (HET) systems and reduce the total life cycle cost of electric propulsion thrusters. Insulation and potting degradation in HET systems during thruster operations can lead to early thruster failures that have occurred with existing processes for manufacturing and potting magnetic wire. HiFunda will refine and improve its new filament winding in situ potting (FWISP) process for fabricating HTEM coils that utilizes a castable inorganic composite potting material (CICPM) coupled with a multistage thermal curing process. The proposed FWISP process brings considerable flexibility to the design and automation and repeatability to the fabrication of HTEM coils for HETs and will extend the temperature limits of conventional polymeric and/or ceramic potting materials thereby minimizing or eliminating instances of potting and insulation failures. The P2S project will initially develop and qualify small HTEM coils for the current sub-1 kW HET satellite market. HiFunda plans to become a custom HTEM coil provider through the P2S program and develop the ability to fabricate and qualify custom high-quality HTEM coils initially for its strategic partners: Northrop Grumman Corporation, Phase Four, and other potential customers identified through the P2S project. Then the FWISP process technology will be scaled up to create 50 kW HTEM coils. The design principles, manufacturing processes, and key requirements remain largely consistent when scaling from 0.5 kW to 50 kW coils, allowing for a smooth transition to high-power NEP-HET applications.

The proposed new FWISP process and CICPM-based potting solution will allow NEP-HET platforms to run at higher temperatures and thereby maximize power density. Benefits to NASA include increased design flexibility for HTEMs, improved reliability and longer lifetimes of HTEMs, significant systems cost reduction for satellite launches due to reduced HTEM weight, mission flexibility, and potential cost reductions of acceptance testing and HETs. The additional thrust per kW of power can result in wider adoption of HETs for satellite positioning and orbit raising applications. A 40% reduction in acceptance testing costs is expected through improved manufacturing consistency. The compatibility of the technology with various propulsion systems creates a unified manufacturing platform for multiple mission profiles. The FWISP technology is critical to advance HETs for higher efficiency and mission flexibility enabling longer missions for both robotic and human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. The proposed HTEM coil technology has the potential to enable a 30-40% improvement in specific impulse through optimized coil configurations and will enable more reliable higher power HETs for cargo transport and large-scale science missions in deep space. The new HTEM coils can be combined with high-power NEP for NASA’s human exploration program. FWISP-enabled HTEM coils are well suited for: 1) the Lunar Gateway Power and Propulsion Element - may reduce thrust variability for the 40kW Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS); 2) Mars Cargo Transport - will support clustered HET configurations achieving 4N/kW thrust-to-power ratios; and 3) Human Exploration Vehicles – can provide redundant coil architectures with fail-safe thermal management. This advancement positions NASA to overcome current limitations in electric propulsion scaling, particularly for high-delta-v missions requiring 100kW+ power levels. The proposed technology will be adopted for non-NASA HTEM coils in the commercial satellite and space industry initially. By working closely with our strategic partners, Northrop Grumman Corporation and Phase Four, and performing acceptance and qualification testing during the proposed P2S program, HiFunda will become an approved supplier for sub-1 kW HET coils which forms a commercial business base for satellite applications so that the technology is readily available to support the development of the larger custom HETs for commercial and NASA applications. In addition to producing custom HTEM coils, HiFunda will also license the technology HET producers that are vertically integrated. There is also critical unmet need and significant opportunity, that can be addressed through the new technology developed in the P2S project, for a compact HTEM coil technology that has operational capability up to 500°C without heavy insulation or water cooling and for thermal management applications like potting of hot components, subassemblies, and surfaces in high-temperature environments for gas turbine engines, furnaces, processing equipment, aerospace, and automotive applications.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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.