Novel Spider 3D Woven Seamless ADEPT Aero-Shell

Bally Ribbon Mills will focus on the advancement, development, and demonstration of the proposed innovation, ADEPT Spider Weaving. Phase 2 will demonstrate and produce one-piece ADEPT spider woven aero shells for the Sprite C and SR-1 configurations. The Sprite C aero shells shall be delivered and ready to attach to the current Sprite C understructure for arc jet testing. The SR-1 aero shells will demonstrate the ability to scale-up the Spider Weaving process and provide aero shells ready to attach to the current SR-1 understructure. The proposed technology to manufacture aero-shell will allow each mission to utilize an aero-shell design that fits within existing launch vehicle systems and later transforms into a low ballistic coefficient configuration for descent and landing.

Potential NASA applications that could utilize BRM's Spider Woven aero shells include 6m ADEPT Venus Mission Concept, 16m Lifting ADEPT Human Exploration, 1m ADEPT Mars Lander Malin SSS Concept and 1.0+m Lifting Nano ADEPT.

The proposed technology can be applicable for commercial space industry such as applications to venture tourism, communications, and safely deploy scientific payloads to Saturn, Jupiter and Uranus.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — 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.