DF PDS RFI V5.pdf

Version 5

DRAGONFLY PARACHUTE DECELERATOR SYSTEM

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center (LaRC) is hereby soliciting information from potential sources that have experience in the design, fabrication, and qualification of a parachute decelerator system (PDS) (including mortar, drogue parachute, main parachute, main parachute deployment mechanism), and capable of meeting the technical requirements and challenges listed below. (Note: The PDS requirements and design are not frozen at the present time. Design changes, especially those that can address the challenges listed below and/or reduce cost, will be considered.)

NASA LaRC is seeking industry input and capability statements from all interested parties, including all socioeconomic categories of Small Businesses and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority Institutions (MI), for the purposes of determining the appropriate level of competition and/or small business subcontracting goals for the Dragonfly PDS. The Government reserves the right to consider a Small, 8(a), Women-owned (WOSB), Service Disabled Veteran (SD-VOSB), Economically Disadvantaged Women-owned Small Business (EDWOSB) or HUBZone business set-aside based on responses received.

No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on https://beta.sam.gov/. Interested firms are responsible for monitoring these sites for the release of any solicitation or synopsis.

Please advise if the requirement is considered to be a commercial or commercial-type product. A commercial item is defined in FAR 2.101.

BACKGROUND

NASA has selected the Dragonfly Mission under the New Frontiers Program. Additional information on Dragonfly can be obtained at the following web sites:

https://www.nasa.gov/dragonfly https://www.nasa.gov/planetarymissions/newfrontiers.html https://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/What-Is-Dragonfly/ This mission is intended to place a rotorcraft lander on the surface of Titan (Saturn’s largest moon) to study its prebiotic chemistry and habitability. Subsequently in this document the “rotorcraft lander” will be denoted simply as “lander”. Launch is scheduled for 2026, with arrival at Titan in 2034. The mission is being led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). Other partners in this mission include Lockheed Martin Space (LMS), providing the entry aeroshell, and NASA, leading the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) system development. The EDL system includes a PDS. Information is sought from industry and industry teams capable of designing, fabricating, qualifying, and delivering the PDS.

The current EDL concept of operation is shown in Figure 1 (all numeric values are approximate).

Prior to entry, the cruise stage separates from the aeroshell. The entry mass (including aeroshell, lander, and other systems) current best estimate is 1574 kg (not-to-exceed value is 2100 kg). The https://beta.sam.gov/ https://www.nasa.gov/dragonfly https://www.nasa.gov/planetarymissions/newfrontiers.html https://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/What-Is-Dragonfly/ aeroshell will be 4.5 m in diameter. During entry, after the aeroheating and deceleration pulses are over, a drogue parachute will be deployed by a mortar. This deployment will occur at a nominal Mach number and dynamic pressure of 1.5 and 363 Pa, respectively. At present it is assumed that this drogue parachute will be a Viking-scaled Disk-Gap-Band (DGB) with a nominal diameter of

5.4 m. To minimize interactions between the aeroshell’s aerodynamic wake and the parachute, it has been assumed that the skirt of the inflated drogue parachute will be 10 aeroshell diameters (45 m) downstream of the aeroshell’s maximum diameter. The first purpose of this drogue parachute is to stabilize and decelerate the aeroshell at supersonic, transonic, and subsonic speeds.

After descending under the drogue parachute for approximately 104 minutes, at an altitude of approximately 4 km above the surface, the drogue parachute will perform its second purpose, serving as a pilot parachute for the deployment of the main parachute. This deployment will occur at a nominal airspeed and dynamic pressure of 5.8 m/s and 78.4 Pa, respectively. At present it is assumed that the main parachute will also be a Viking-scaled DGB and have a nominal diameter of 13.44 m. The main parachute has several purposes: 1) to provide sufficient ballistic coefficient difference for the heatshield and lander separation events, 2) to reduce the dynamic motions of the aeroshell, and 3) to deliver the lander to the desired separation airspeed of 2.9 m/s at an altitude above the surface of 1.2 km. It is estimated that the time from main parachute deployment to lander separation will be approximately 18 minutes.

Because of the long descent times under the drogue and main parachutes, swivels will be required to decouple the rotation of the aeroshell and parachutes. Currently NASA intends to provide these swivels as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE); however, any recommendations to an alternative approach will also be reviewed. The maximum load that can be applied to these swivels will be approximately 14.7 kN.

Figure 1. EDL Concept of Operation.

In designing, developing, and qualifying the PDS system, particular attention will need to be paid to the Titan environment. The temperature at the surface of Titan is extremely low, 94 K, and can be as low as 70 K during the parachute phase. The PDS will have to operate reliably at these temperatures. The atmospheric density of Titan is very high as compared to that of Earth: 5.2 kg/m3 at an altitude of 1.2 km above the surface. Finally, the surface gravity of Titan is low, 1.35 m/s2;

this affects many aspects of the PDS operation.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS AND CHALLENGES

Technical Requirements Please note that the requirements presented here are high-level and preliminary. They will be updated to include more details at a later date and when necessary.

Requirements are labeled here as either external (ER) or internal (IR). External requirements are those that are directly associated with EDL. Internal requirements are those associated with the design and functioning of the PDS.

The PDS has to meet four key external requirements associated with its function during Dragonfly’s EDL.

ER1) The parachutes shall stabilize the aeroshell during flight at all Mach numbers less than 1.8.

ER2) The main parachute shall provide sufficient differential in ballistic coefficient between the main parachute/backshell/lander and the heatshield to facilitate a clean separation of the heatshield with minimal chance of recontact with the main parachute/backshell/lander.

ER3) The main parachute shall provide sufficient differential in ballistic coefficient between the main parachute/backshell and the lander to facilitate a clean separation of the lander with minimal chance of recontact with the main parachute/backshell.

ER4) The main parachute shall deliver the backshell/lander to the desired condition ( [99%-tile value] at ) for the lander to separate from the backshell and initiate powered flight.

From the external requirements, system architecture decisions, and analyses, the following internal requirements are defined:

Mortar IR1) The mortar shall successfully deploy the drogue parachute at the operating conditions specified in requirement IR20.

Drogue Parachute IR2) The drogue parachute shall be deployed by a mortar.

IR3) The drogue parachute shall deploy and inflate successfully at the operating conditions specified in requirement IR20.

IR4) The drogue parachute shall be able to sustain all inertial and aerodynamic loads imposed on it during its operation.

IR5) The drogue parachute shall be of the Disk-Gap-Band (DGB) type with the same relative geometry as the DGB used in the Viking mission.

IR6) The drogue parachute shall be capable of successfully deploying the main parachute at the operating conditions specified in requirement IR21.

Main Parachute IR7) The main parachute shall be capable of being successfully deployed by the drogue parachute at the operating conditions specified in requirement IR21.

IR8) The main parachute shall be capable of inflating successfully after being deployed by the drogue parachute.

IR9) The main parachute shall be able to sustain all inertial and aerodynamic loads imposed on it during its operation.

IR10) The main parachute shall be of the DGB type with the same relative geometry as the

DGB used in the Viking mission.

Drogue Parachute Release IR11) The drogue parachute release mechanism shall operate on command to initiate the main parachute deployment.

IR12) The drogue parachute release mechanism shall be able to sustain all inertial and aerodynamic loads imposed on it during its operation.

Operational Parameters IR13) The PDS will spend up to two years in storage before launch.

IR14) The PDS will spend up to 10 years in a deep-space environment (transit time to Titan).

IR15) The mortar and drogue parachute will be maintained within the temperature range

-60 °C to +30 °C (213 K to 303 K) from the time it is integrated into the aeroshell to the time the mortar is fired.

IR16) The main parachute and its canister will be maintained within the temperature range -60 °C to +30 °C (213 K to 318 K) from the time it is integrated into the aeroshell to the time the main parachute is deployed.

IR17) After deployment, the drogue and main parachutes will experience temperatures as low as 70 K.

IR18) The atmosphere of Titan is ~95 percent nitrogen and ~5 percent methane, with small quantities of hydrogen and other gases.

IR19) Requirements IR1 to IR12 shall be met while experiencing the appropriate operational parameters specified in requirements IR13 to IR18.

IR20) The drogue parachute will be deployed within the following operating conditions:

Mach number, :

Dynamic pressure, :

Aeroshell total angle of attack, :

IR21) The main parachute will be deployed within the following operating conditions:

Altitude, :

Dynamic pressure, :

Airspeed, :

Challenges The following known technical challenges have been identified for the PDS.

1) The parachutes will need to operate at extremely low temperatures. The spacecraft ability’s to control the parachutes’ temperature prior to deployment may be limited, although the current design intent is to maintain the parachutes within the temperature range specified in the requirements. Once deployed, the parachutes will need to operate at the Titan ambient temperature.

2) The dynamics of the aeroshell during the parachute phase (both drogue and main) will need to be kept within reasonable bounds for structural and system operational reasons (e.g., release of the lander). Because the unusual operating conditions (e.g., atmospheric density, acceleration of gravity), it may be difficult to predict these dynamics by analysis.

Dynamically-scaled testing is expected to be required to verify that the aeroshell dynamic requirements are met.

3) Because of the low airspeed at the start of main parachute deployment, and the relatively large main parachute (vis-à-vis atmospheric density, aeroshell mass, and acceleration of gravity), the main parachute inflation time may be long (> 10 s). There are concerns regarding reliability of inflation during such a long time interval. Dynamically-scaled testing is expected to be required to verify the reliability of the main parachute deployment and inflation.

RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS

Capabilities Statement Interested firms having the capabilities necessary to meet the requirement described above should submit a capability statement. Responses to this Request for Information (RFI) associated with the capability statement shall address each of the three items listed below, and shall be limited to five (5) single-sided, 8.5- x 11-inch pages for each of the three items with text in no less than 12-point font.

The contents of the capability statement shall include the items listed below:

1) Technical Capability: This criterion assesses the technical capabilities required for the design, fabrication, and qualification of the PDS. Assessment will be made of the respondent's technical capability including but not limited to:

(A) the respondent's ability to develop successful plans for design, fabrication, and qualification of the PDS,

(B) the ability to deliver space flight hardware and,

(C) the availability of key personnel skilled in similar space hardware and tasks.

2) Facilities: This criterion assesses the respondent's facilities (e.g., clean room, fabrication, testing, as well as mission/quality assurance, and analysis/modeling capabilities as applicable).

3) Cost and Schedule Control: This criterion assesses the cost and schedule estimate for the solution being offered. The cost and schedule management strategies for hardware development and delivery should be discussed, as applicable. Provide the cost and schedule drivers and assumptions, as applicable. The ability of the respondent to complete projects on time and within the fixed budgets which are characteristic of NASA's competitive cost-capped opportunities will also be assessed.

Technical Requirements and Challenges Interested firms can provide input, feedback, and suggestions related to the technical requirements and anticipated challenges identified above, and the design, projected schedule, and associated costs. Response shall be limited to five (5) single-sided, 8.5- x 11-inch pages, with text in no less than 12-point font.

Please direct all technical questions to Juan R. Cruz. All responses shall be submitted electronically via email to the technical point of contact, Juan R. Cruz, juan.r.cruz@nasa.gov and the contracting officer, Octavia Hicks, octavia.l.hicks@nasa.gov. Please reference SS_RFI_DRAGONFLY_2020 in any response.

This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited.

Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation.

Respondents deemed fully qualified will be considered in any resultant solicitation for the requirement.

ABBREVIATIONS

APL Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory DGB Disk-Gap-Band (parachute type) EDL entry, descent, and landing ER external requirement IR internal requirement JHU Johns Hopkins University LaRC Langley Research Center LMS Lockheed Martin Space NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration PDS Parachute Decelerator System mailto:juan.r.cruz@nasa.gov mailto:octavia.l.hicks@nasa.gov

Mortar