Actively cooled cryogenic thermal shielding and related multi-layer insulation performance is the next stage of NASA Glenn Research Center and Ball Aerospace's long-duration liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid methane (LCH4) storage research.
Long-duration LOX and LCH4 propellant storage is key to NASA's plans for its future Moon and Mars missions. For the shielding development Ball will provide a cryogenic test tank, a multi-layer insulation blanket, vacuum chamber, flight-type cryocooler, a cooled radiation shield, a helium flow loop, and supporting hardware. Glenn will provide an alternative "ultra-lightweight" design cryogenic helium cooled thermal shield to be integrated into Ball's system and tested separately.
Ball was selected without competition as NASA concluded "it could best provide relevant expertise and hardware".
The active cooling and multi-layer insulation studies are a follow-on to research carried out by Ball and Glenn under the cryogenic management project's Delivery and Storage of Cryogenic Propellants for Exploration Missions work.
For multi-layer insulation performance Ball will examine tank blanket "venting and thermal performance...during ascent". Ball has to fabricate a flight-like 40-layer blanket, vented at the seams, for a relevant subscale cryogenic tank. It will be tested in a vacuum system able to replicate ascent pressure profile conditions.
The previous cryogenic storage work identified that "ascent venting could be a significant contributor to the overall propellant thermal load".
Source: Flight International
