Plume Mitigation for Mars Terminal Landing: Soil Stabilization Project

Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has led the efforts for lunar and Martian landing site preparation, including excavation, soil stabilization, and plume damage prediction. There has been much discussion of sintering but until our team recently demonstrated it for the lunar case there was little understanding of the serious challenges. Simplistic sintering creates a crumbly, brittle, weak surface unsuitable for a rocket exhaust plume. The goal of this project is to solve those problems and make it possible to land a human class lander on Mars, making terminal landing of humans on Mars possible for the first time

Plasma Cleaning

NASA's Kennedy Space Center has developed two solvent-free precision cleaning techniques: plasma cleaning and supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2), that has equal performance, cost parity, and no environmental liability, as compared to existing solvent cleaning methods

Building a Lunar or Martian Launch Pad with the in situ Materials: Recent Laboratory and Field Studies

No abstract availabl

A Micro-Electrochemical Study of Friction Stir Welded Aluminum 6061-T6

The corrosion behavior of friction stir welded Aluminum alloy 606 1-T6 was studied using a micro-electrochemical cell. The micro-electrochemical cell has a measurement area of about 0.25 square mm which allows for measurement of corrosion properties at a very small scale. The corrosion and breakdown potentials were measured at many points inside and outside the weld along lines perpendicular to the weld. The breakdown potential is approximately equal inside and outside the weld; however, it is lower in the narrow border between the weld and base material. The results of electrochemical measurements were correlated to micro-structural analysis. The corrosion behavior of the friction stir welded samples was compared to tungsten inert gas (TIG) welded samples of the same material

Alternative Solvents through Green Chemistry Project

Components in the aerospace industry must perform with accuracy and precision under extreme conditions, and surface contamination can be detrimental to the desired performance, especially in cases when the components come into contact with strong oxidizers such as liquid oxygen. Therefore, precision cleaning is an important part of a components preparation prior to utilization in aerospace applications. Current cleaning technologies employ a variety of cleaning agents, many of which are halogenated solvents that are either toxic or cause environmental damage. Thus, this project seeks to identify alternative precision cleaning solvents and technologies, including use of less harmful cleaning solvents, ultrasonic and megasonic agitation, low-pressure plasma cleaning techniques, and supercritical carbon dioxide extraction. Please review all data content found in the Public Data tab located at: https:techport.nasa.govview11697publi

Trash-to-Gas: Converting Space Trash into Useful Products

NASA's Logistical Reduction and Repurposing (LRR) project is a collaborative effort in which NASA is determined to reduce total logistical mass through reduction, reuse and recycling of various wastes and components of long duration space missions and habitats. LRR is focusing on four distinct advanced areas of study: Advanced Clothing System, Logistics-to-Living, Heat Melt Compactor and Trash to Supply Gas (TtSG). The objective of TtSG is to develop technologies that convert material waste, human waste and food waste into high-value products. High-value products include life support oxygen and water, rocket fuels, raw material production feedstocks, and other energy sources. There are multiple pathways for converting waste to products involving single or multi-step processes. This paper discusses thermal oxidation methods of converting waste to methane. Different wastes, including food, food packaging, Maximum Absorbent Garments (MAGs), human waste simulants, and cotton washcloths have been evaluated in a thermal degradation reactor under conditions promoting pyrolysis, gasification or incineration. The goal was to evaluate the degradation processes at varying temperatures and ramp cycles and to maximize production of desirable products and minimize high molecular weight hydrocarbon (tar) production. Catalytic cracking was also evaluated to minimize tar production. The quantities of CO2, CO, CH4, and H2O were measured under the different thermal degradation conditions. The conversion efficiencies of these products were used to determine the best methods for producing desired products

Electrochemical Properties of Organosilane Self Assembled Monolayers on Aluminum 2024

Self assembled monolayers are commonly used to modify surfaces. Within the last 15 years, self assembled monolayers have been investigated as a way to protect from corrosion[1,2] or biofouling.[3] In this study, self assembled monolayers of decitriethoxysilane (C10H21Si(OC2H5)3) and octadecyltriethoxysilane (C18H37Si(OC2H5)3) were formed on aluminum 2024-T3. The modified surfaces and bare Al 2024 were characterized by dynamic water contact angle measurements, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XIPS) and infrared spectroscopy. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in 0.5 M NaCl was used to characterize the monolayers and evaluate their corrosion protection properties. The advancing water contact angle and infrared measurements show that the mono layers form a surface where the hydrocarbon chains are packed and oriented away from the surface, consistent with what is found in similar systems. The contact angle hysteresis measured in these systems is relatively large, perhaps indicating that the hydrocarbon chains are not as well packed as monolayers formed on other substrates. The results of the EIS measurements were modeled using a Randle's circuit modified by changing the capacitor to a constant phase element. The constant phase element values were found to characterize the monolayer. The capacitance of the monolayer modified surface starts lower than the bare Al 2024, but approaches values similar to the bare Al 2024 within 24 hours as the monolayer is degraded. The n values found for bare Al 2024 quickly approach the value of a true capacitor and are greater than 0.9 within hours after the start of exposure. For the monolayer modified structure, n can stay lower than 0.9 for a longer period of time. In fact, n for the monolayer modified surfaces is different from the bare surface even after the capacitance values have converged. This indicates that the deviation from ideal capacitance is the most sensitive indicator of the presence of the monolayer

Instrument for Analysis of Organic Compounds on Other Planets

The goal of this project is to develop the Instrument for Solvent Extraction and Analysis of Extraterrestrial Bodies using In Situ Resources (ISEE). Specifically, ISEE will extract and characterize organic compounds from regolith which is found on the surface of other planets or asteroids. The techniques this instrument will use are supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC). ISEE aligns with NASA's goal to expand the frontiers of knowledge, capability, and opportunities in space in addition to supporting NASA's aim to search for life elsewhere by characterizing organic compounds. The outcome of this project will be conceptual designs of 2 components of the ISEE instrument as well as the completion of proof-of-concept extraction experiments to demonstrate the capabilities of SFE. The first conceptual design is a pressure vessel to be used for the extraction of the organic compounds from the regolith. This includes a comparison of different materials, geometry's, and a proposition of how to insert the regolith into the vessel. The second conceptual design identifies commercially available fluid pumps based on the requirements needed to generate supercritical CO2. The proof-of-concept extraction results show the percent mass lost during standard solvent extractions of regolith with organic compounds. This data will be compared to SFE results to demonstrate the capabilities of ISEE's approach

Trash to Supply Gas (TtSG) Project Overview: Space Logistics Panel

No abstract availabl

Trash to Gas (TtG) Simulant Analysis

Space exploration in outer earths orbit is a long-term commitment, where the reuse of discarded materials is a critical component for its success. The Logistics Reduction and Repurposing (LRR) project under the NASA Advanced Exploration System Program is a project focused on technologies that reduce the amount of consumables that are needed to be sent into space, repurpose items sent to space, or convert wastes to commodities. In particular, Trash to Gas (TtG), part of the LRR project, is a novel space technology capable of converting raw elements from combustible waste including food waste and packaging, paper, wipes and towels, nitrile gloves, fecal matter, urine brine, maximum absorbency garments, and other organic wastes from human space exploration into useful gases. Trash to gas will ultimately reduce mission cost by producing a portion of important consumables in situ. This paper will discuss results of waste processing by steam reforming. Steam reforming is a thermochemical process developed as part of TtG, where waste is heated in the presence of oxygen and steam to produce carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, methane and water. The aim of this experiment is to investigate the processing of different waste simulants and their gaseous products. This will lay a foundation for understating and optimizing the production of useful gases for propulsion and recovery of water for life support