Speaker
Description
To enable human space missions to mars and beyond, future payload mass needs to increase significantly. Cryogenic propellants with both high specific impulse and with the possibility of fuel production on mars make them an excellent choice for these types of missions. Using cryogenic propellants for missions longer than a few hours poses several challenges including the need to minimize liquid losses due to boil-off caused by low storage temperatures and to manage the low-g issues. So far there has not been a mission to investigate and demonstrate technologies for the storage of cryogenic fluids in space for propulsion applications. This demonstration is critical for cryogenic fluid phenomena under micro-gravity.
As such a collaborative study between NASA and DLR was conceived to develop a micro-gravity experiment of cryogenic fluids. In this study, the feasibility of a cryogenic fluid demonstration satellite is shown, called the Future-oriented Research platform for Orbital cryogenic Storage Technologies (FROST). FROST is investigated to fly as primary payload on the DLR CompactSat Bus. This bus offers a maximum total mass of 500kg, which is driven by testing capabilities at DLR Bremen and current launcher rideshare opportunities. These 500kg include the bus segment, so that the maximum payload mass is iterated with the bus. This was started in a CE-Study in May 2019, where a payload mass of ~115 kg without experiment fluid came out to fit within this restriction. The following phase 0-A study investigated this setup in more detail, demonstrating the feasibility. The achievable main topics are: the demonstration of long-term storage technologies, the demonstration of pressure control in cryogenic tank systems, the demonstration of the transfer of cryogenic fluids between tanks, investigating (the demonstration of) the general behavior of cryogenic liquids in micro-gravity conditions, and the demonstration of mass gauging methods for cryogenic fluids in micro-gravity. All those topics can be investigated under micro-gravity (bond-number <1) conditions as well as under small thrust for bond-numbers up to 10, provided by the bus. In this presentation the results of the study will be presented, discussing research possibilities on the proposed platform.
| Keywords | cryogenic, longterm storage, micro-gravity, pressure-control, |
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