NASA has invested significant time and money in developing high-temperature technologies for venus surface exploration. Due to the harsh environment outside an insulated lander body (~462OC, 92 bar…

NASA awarded a definitive contract to Ozark Integrated Circuits Inc., a small business, for $754,517 on July 29, 2019, under a total small business set-aside, to develop motor control electronics for Venus rock sampling drill applications.

The originating effort addresses high-temperature technology development for Venus surface exploration. Phase 2 scope includes fabricating a combined motor control chipset, assembling modules, and demonstrating motor and electronics operating together at Venus surface temperature (~462°C, 92 bar pressure). The work builds on Phase 1 laboratory demonstrations showing Ozark's JFET-R integrated circuit technology can continuously run a stepper motor for over 1,000 hours at 470°C, and on Honeybee Robotics' TRL-6 Venus motors adapted to stepper configuration. Phase 2 targets 500 hours of operational testing at Venus temperature, with power and torque monitoring using Honeybee's high-temperature motor characterization system.

Place of performance is Fayetteville, Arkansas. The contract is firm fixed price with an ultimate completion date of August 1, 2023. Honeybee Robotics LLC serves as subcontractor for bench-top motor and temperature testing. In FY2021, the contract invoiced $280 thousand at a derived rate of $183.10 per hour, with 0.7 FTEs and 1,530 contractor hours, all self-performed by the prime.

NASA has invested significant time and money in developing high-temperature technologies for venus surface exploration. Due to the harsh environment outside an insulated lander body (~462OC, 92 bar pressure, CO2 atmosphere), conventional, high-TRL components and materials will not survive, even for a short duration mission lasting only a few hours.to meet this need, ozark IC has worked with NASA's jfet-r integrated circuit technology (under license since 2016) to provide sensing and actuation solutions that can survive in this harsh environment. Honeybee robotics (HBR) has built and tested several motor, sensor and gearbox prototypes for a venus rock sampling drill. The drill includes two bldc motors to drive the auger and percussion mechanisms and a stepper motor to drive the drill feed stage...in phase i of this effort, ozark IC showed, through a laboratory demonstration, that NASA's jfet-r technology can continuously run a stepper motor for over 1,000 hours of operation at 470OC. In parallel, honeybee robotics demonstrated that its TRL-6 level venus motors are capable of being used in a stepper configuration to achieve the required auger needs for a venus drill.what remains for phase 2 is to fabricate a combined motor control chipset, assemble modules, and demonstrate the combined motor and electronics operating together at the venus surface temperature. The motor and drive electronics will then be tested at venus temperature and characteristic measurements including power and torque will be monitored using HBR's high temperature motor characterization system. 500 hours of operation is targeted for this effort.