Thermal protection systems (TPS) are needed to protect spacecraft and crew from high temperature propellant gases, heating from solar radiation, and heating from friction with planetary atmospheres.…

NASA awarded a $749,948 definitive contract to Geoplasma LLC for advanced thermal protection system (TPS) materials development and testing on July 11, 2019, under a total small business set-aside.

The originating solicitation addresses optimization and ground-based testing of ceramic-based thermal barrier coatings and TPS materials for aerospace applications, including rocket engine components, re-entry vehicles, and hypersonic vehicles. The effort includes producing samples for exposure testing on Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE-13 and MISSE-14) payloads to evaluate the effects of space environment on advanced TPS materials deposited on metallic substrates using plasma spray additive manufacturing techniques. Place of performance is Huntsville, AL. The contract is firm fixed price with an ultimate completion date of December 31, 2024.

SCI reporting shows actual government-invoiced labor peaked in FY2021 at 74.2 FTEs and 154,386 contractor hours, with a derived blended hourly rate of $1.98. Activity declined sharply thereafter, with FY2023 reflecting 0.2 FTEs and 386 contractor hours. As of FY2023, 100 percent of contractor hours were subcontracted out across two subcontractors.

Thermal protection systems (TPS) are needed to protect spacecraft and crew from high temperature propellant gases, heating from solar radiation, and heating from friction with planetary atmospheres. For example, ceramic based thermal barrier coatings (TBC) are being applied to rocket engine components such as combustion chambers, injector face plates, and nozzle extensions to allow higher temperature propellants to be used, which results in increased performance. In addition, TBC materials are desired for RE-entry and hypersonic vehicles that will experience both space and atmospheric conditions. All of these systems rely on the low thermal conductivity and emissive properties of the ceramic topcoat to minimize heat transfer. However because of the thermal expansion mismatch between the ceramic topcoat and underlying metallic structure, special care must be taken during joining. The phase i results showed advanced plasma spray additive manufacturing techniques can be used to produce ceramic based TPS/TBC materials on metallic substrates and the ability to successfully modify critical properties such as reflectance/emissivity and thermal conductivity through rare earth oxide additions were demonstrated. During phase II, the most promising TPS materials will be optimized and extensive ground based testing will be performed. Samples will also be produced for testing on misse-13 and misse-14, and these samples will be compared to the ground test results to determine any detrimental effects from space exposure. At the conclusion of the phase II effort, critical space exposure data will be available for a broad range of advanced TPS materials for different substrates and applications, which is needed for the safe development of future NASA missions such as long duration space travel, space stations, lunar habitats, RE-entry and hypersonic vehicles.