Robust Engineered Thermal Control Material Systems for Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and Prometheus Needs, Phase I

identified needs for the thermal control and ESD functions of the Prometheus Program's hardware for the heat rejection system for the planned nuclear system. These efforts can also serve uniquely the (CEV) radiator systems needs. The TCMS for the radiators of the both CEV and Prometheus missions need to operate at higher temperatures and provide the space environment stable low ratio of (αs/εT) performance in high radiation orbits involving intense UV, electrons and protons. The CEV application also needs it to withstand typical launch environments. None of the state-of-an-art material systems that are currently in use are designed for the needs of the space environment stable operation at elevated temperatures, and hence, can not meet the same. This proposal identifies the next generation solid state chemistries and processing requirements that can provide the multifunctional space stable performance at higher temperatures and also provide the required unique ESD performance when these very large thermal control areas get exposed to very low temperatures. The proposed efforts will synthesize the candidate new nano engineered passivated pigments and evaluate its space environment stability with use of recently developed next generation dielectrically engineered binders that can employ nano-cluster chemistry to cure into interconnecting percolation paths along with abilities to tailor CTE, thermal shock and thermal cycling performance. Based on results in the phase I study, the candidate solid-state chemistries based products and their processing will be scaled up in Phase II efforts to provide the next generation "robust" validated TCMS products. The primary aim of this SBIR will focus on evaluating the feasibility of new solid state chemistries that can deliver space environment stable (αs/εT) while being exposed to the elevated temperatures of the order of 600 C.

Potential NASA Commercial Applications: Like NASA, the commercial industry has planned several satellites for the broad band communication activities. The FAA and NASA are also planning commercial space based radars for air traffic control and distant planet observations. Such radar platforms are also planned by DOD for the battle-field management, and such platform structures are expected to be large and sizable, where charge accumulation can be an over riding concerns. These planned candidate radar application assets and their fleets of such integrated space systems may require putting assets in the mid-earth orbits (MEO) for over all optimization and minimization of mission costs. Such mission and fleet designs can be possible and can be economic only if the "robust" material technologies are made available that can perform at high temperatures without failure. Currently no material technology exists that can mitigate high temperature induced degradation effects. Many future NASA planetary, the commercial and some of the DoD platform hardware devoted to radar applications are expected to operate at higher temperatures and thus will significantly benefit form the new concept material systems being developed through this SBIR.

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.

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