NASA Selects Proposals for Ultra-Lightweight Materials

SpaceNut · 2015-04-07 21:13:10

NASA Selects Proposals for Ultra-Lightweight Materials for Journey to Mars and Beyond

NASA has selected three proposals to develop and manufacture ultra-lightweight (ULW) materials for future aerospace vehicles and structures. The proposals will mature advanced technologies that will enable NASA to reduce the mass of spacecraft by 40 percent for deep space exploration.
"Lightweight and multifunctional materials and structures are one of NASA's top focus areas capable of having the greatest impact on future NASA missions in human and robotic exploration," said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington. "These advanced technologies are necessary for us to be able to launch stronger, yet lighter, spacecraft and components as we look to explore an asteroid and eventually Mars."
Composite sandwich structures are a special type of material made by attaching two thin skins to a lightweight core. Traditional composite sandwich structures incorporate either honeycomb or foam cores. This type of composite is used extensively within the aerospace industry and in other applications making it possible for future journeys to Mars. The ULW materials being developed by NASA vary significantly from traditional cores and are expected to result in a significant decrease in mass.
Phase I awards of the solicitation are valued up to $550,000, providing awardees with funding for 13 months to produce 12-by-12-by1-inch ULW core panels. Technologies selected to continue to Phase II will demonstrate the ability to scale up to 2-feet by 2-feet by 1-inch and ultimately to produce 10-feet by 11-feet by 1-inch ULW core panels, with NASA providing up to $2 million per award for up to 18 months.
The three awards selected for contract negotiations are:
•HRL Laboratories LLC of Malibu, California: Ultralight Micro-truss Cores for Space Launch Systems
•ATK Space Systems LLC of Magna, Utah: Game Changing Technology Development Program Ultra-Light Weight Core Materials for Efficient Load Bearing Composite Sandwich Structures
•Dynetics Inc. of Huntsville, Alabama: Ultra-Lightweight Core Materials for Efficient Load-Bearing Composite Sandwich Structures

The fact that Nasa is looking at flight equipment mass reductions are a positive sign....

GW Johnson · 2015-04-08 08:42:34

I saw composite skins bonded to honeycomb core structures made with lightweight materials being processed by students in a teaching lab on a college campus in the mid 1990's. I taught them.

The fundamental idea / first incarnation was airliner floors to resist spike heels in the late 1950's. That was something similar to kevlar with vinyl ester as skins over honeycomb. The same idea was done in the early 1950's in metals: stainless sheet skins literally bonded to an expanded-metal honeycomb. Honeycomb cores get you stiffer panels than foam cores, but cost more.

So what is new here with this NASA initiative? New combinations of source materials perhaps? Re-do the aircraft floor sandwich with carbon-epoxy instead of kevlar-vinyl ester? Of course that can be done! I'm actually surprised it hasn't been done already.

Going to carbon vs kevlar might buy a slight weight reduction at the cost of greatly-increased impact damage susceptibility. They use the kevlar in aircraft floor and interior panels precisely because it survives abuse very well and is already light enough. Whether your resin is vinyl ester or epoxy makes little difference to the overall outcome. You use whatever resin is more convenient and inexpensive for you.

I'm sorry, but this smells like another gravy train technology project intended to keep favored contractors fat and happy. I notice one of the 3 bidders is ATK. Dynetics is also a name I have seen before. The 3rd name is unfamiliar to me. However, I have been on government test projects where an outsider was hired by a lab as a 3rd competitor to help achieve a competitive image, and to help keep the two favored contractors honestly competitive.

GW

Last edited by GW Johnson (2015-04-08 08:44:52)

SpaceNut · 2015-04-08 17:13:41

I recall seeing data about a comparison on the Bigelow inflateble versus the tuna can modules and it was somewhere on the order of 30%. Which is great if it can do what we want for the long term duration and for the protection that man would need for such a time frame as 900 day round trip of which 500 would be spent on the Mars surface. That said if the percentage is even a 20 % reduction in the lander habitat or on a Rover habitat mass then we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel for Mars.

Now the gravy train should end with a nasa target of just getting the product made and not any further R&D by sending out these new requests contracts....

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#1 2015-04-07 21:13:10

NASA Selects Proposals for Ultra-Lightweight Materials

#2 2015-04-08 08:42:34

Re: NASA Selects Proposals for Ultra-Lightweight Materials

#3 2015-04-08 17:13:41

Re: NASA Selects Proposals for Ultra-Lightweight Materials

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