Titan Montgolfiere Terrestrial Test Bed

With the Titan Saturn System Mission, NASA is proposing to send a Montgolfiere balloon to probe the atmosphere of Titan. In order to better plan this mission and create a robust optimized balloon design, NASA requires the ability to more accurately evaluate the convective heat transfer characteristics of the balloon operating in Titan's atmosphere. Based on limitations and shortfalls of previous efforts, NASA has requested proposals for a test bed to support CFD validation. Near Space Corporation (NSC) proposes to develop an innovative Titan Montgolfiere Terrestrial Test Bed (TMTT) with an innovative integrated sensor and data collection system to provide the required validation. The balloon envelope design will leverage experience gained on past Titan prototypes, and incorporate a novel data acquisition system that will enable both direct and indirect measurements. A combination of embedded sensors and infrared imaging will be used to provide both local and global surface measurements. The embedded sensors will be used to calibrate the remote IR imaging, providing better visualizations with higher resolution and more accurate measurements. The ground work for the system will be provided with model experimentation in Phase I and followed by the development of a full-size test bed in Phase II.

Technologies developed during this SBIR effort could be used for several non-NASA applications, including commercial inflatable space stations, lighter-than-air vehicle envelope monitoring, and solar electric generation system monitoring. Private commercial space technology companies seek to place inflatable space stations in low earth orbit in the next decade, and could benefit from significantly improved monitoring technologies enabled by the sensor technology developed through this SBIR. This technology could also be used to monitor the performance and health of airship and aerostat hulls, which are increasingly used by the USA military for situational awareness in combat zones.

The primary target market for the Titan Montgolfiere Terrestrial Test Bed is the Titan Saturn System Mission (TSSM), including preparatory research projects and the actual mission. Technologies developed during this SBIR effort could be used for several NASA applications, including other planetary exploration missions, inflatable space habitats, and scientific terrestrial balloons. NASA JPL's effort to develop a Montgolfiere balloon for Mars could benefit from computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models validated with data generated by a similar Terrestrial Test Bed. The capabilities developed during this SBIR could also be used to embed pressure sensors directly into inflatable space habitats to monitor performance. Another potential application would be to embed temperature sensors into scientific terrestrial balloons in order to better understand the performance and help further optimize innovative balloon concepts and robust designs.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 5) — 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.