Speaker
Description
Storing cryogenic propellants in space from months to multiple years duration and transfer of these propellants from one tank to another (refueling) are significant challenges on the critical path for returning humans to the moon, future Mars missions, and commercialization of cis-lunar space. State-of-the-art (SOA) storage duration for operational cryogenic stages is currently less than a day; cryogenic propellant transfer in space has never been demonstrated. NASA and its partners have studied solving the storage duration challenge through the integration of refrigeration technology with the propellant system, so-called Zero Boil-Off (ZBO) technologies, for several decades. Beginning in the late 1990s, NASA began to pursue focused technology development efforts to make ZBO feasible. The technology investments included advancements in passive thermal control technologies, insulation and components affecting conductive heat loads, development of high-efficiency high-capacity cryocoolers, assessing various methods to integrate cryogenic refrigeration with a spaceflight propellant tank, and physics-based and simplified modeling tools needed to design and optimize a ZBO system. This paper will summarize NASA’s past efforts that have contributed and provide an assessment of current maturity of both the key components and the integration of those components into a storage system capability. In addition, it will briefly present NASA’s planned remaining steps to complete ZBO technology maturation to the point that it can be infused and enable future long-duration missions with cryogenic propellants.
| Submitters Country | United States |
|---|
