NASA ARC Workshop: Defining Heatshield Capability Needs for Extreme Entry Environment
NASA AMES HALF-DAY WORKSHOP: DEFINING HEAT SHIELD CAPABILITY NEEDS FOR EXTREME ENTRY ENVIRONMENT MISSIONS IN SUPPORT OF WOVEN TPS TECHNOLOGY MATURATION
Synopsis – Apr 04, 2013
General Information
Solicitation Number: WOVENTPS-WORKSHOP-APR2013
Posted Date: Apr 04, 2013
FedBizOpps Posted Date: Apr 04, 2013
Recovery and Reinvestment Act Action: No
Original Response Date: Apr 25, 2013
Current Response Date: Apr 25, 2013
Classification Code: A — Research and Development
NAICS Code: 541712
Set-Aside Code:
Contracting Office Address
NASA/Ames Research Center, JA:M/S 241-1, Moffett Field, CA 94035-0001
Description
Industry is invited to learn about the new woven ablative thermal protection materials under development funded by the Game Changing Development Program of the Space Technology Mission Director and led by NASA Ames Research Center (ARC), Moffett Field, California. The half-day workshop will provide mission designers with insight into the Woven Thermal Protection System (WTPS) technology, the design studies performed to-date, the capability requirements identified and the technology development risks and risk mitigation strategies. The goal of the workshop is to engage with mission designers and proposal teams to assess and improve the focus of the current development in order for the technology to enable and feed into the upcoming Discovery and New Frontier proposals.
DESCRIPTION Under sponsorship of the NASA Game Changing Development Program (GCDP) of the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), ARC will host a half-day workshop to facilitate engagement between the mission design community and the TPS technology developers. In FY12 GCDP competitively selected a proposal to undertake initial “concept feasibility” studies of WTPS. The successful demonstration of the WTPS architecture during this feasibility study led to GCDP support for ARC to conduct a formulation planning activity defining a three-year technology maturation project, “Heat Shield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET).” HEEET is anticipated to start in FY14 with the goal of maturing the WTPS technology to TRL 6 in three years with a primary objective of enabling upcoming Discovery and New Frontier Announcement of Opportunity missions that need robust, mass efficient and cost effective ablative TPS. The near term mission targets include, but are not limited to, Venus Lander, Venus and Saturn probe missions, and high speed sample return missions, where entry environments exceed the capability of current TPS such as PICA and Avcoat, and for which heritage like carbon phenolic (tape wrapped and chop molded) is either mass inefficient and/or mass infeasible and hence science limiting. HEEET is more than just a carbon phenolic replacement; it provides targeted capability development to enable mission designs that cannot be conceived of today. The HEEET project formulation team desires to engage the user community early in the formulation phase in order to better define a common set of capability requirements suitable for a wide range of missions and also to engage the community in defining what TRL 6 maturation means from a specific destination or a mission perspective.
The intent of this workshop is to ensure successful technology maturation that leads to direct mission insertion to enable science missions that are not feasible today. This workshop is envisioned to be the first in a series of workshops (annual or bi-annual is TBD) to be held starting this year and ending in FY16. This ongoing direct interaction between the mission designers and the technology developers will enable the technology developers to better formulate a plan that will meet the end user requirements. During project execution, the interactions will allow mission design teams to assess the progress of WTPS as well as provide feedback that the technology development team may be able to implement to develop broader capabilities, if cost and schedule constraints permit. Close to the end of the TRL maturation, the interactions should allow the mission design teams to propose missions that are not feasible today and utilize the matured WTPS technology with risk, cost and schedule realism. This workshop will be ITAR restricted and participants will be required to sign non-disclosure and other agreements as deemed appropriate prior to participation in the workshop.
EVENT DATE AND LOCATION The event will be held on Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California and via WebEx.
TIMES Presentation: 8:30 -11:30 am PDT HEEET team members will be available for individual discussions, following the workshop, upon request.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND? Mission designers and proposal team members concerned with missions requiring extreme entry environments are encouraged to attend. Potential material suppliers as well as Aerospace organizations supporting NASA and DoD missions are welcome as well. Visitors are required to be U.S. citizens. ITAR information may be presented.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/REGISTRATION All attendees must register in advance, even if attending only via WebEx. For more information and to register, please contact Ron Chinnapongse at 650-604-4979 or ronald.l.chinnapongse@nasa.gov.
RSVP’s are requested by April 25, 2013 and should include name, affiliation, contact information and indication of U.S. citizenship.
Approved attendees will be given specific building location and directions with their registration confirmation.
Point of Contact
Name: Marianne Shelley
Title: Contracting Officer
Phone: 650-604-4179
Fax: 650-604-3020
Email: marianne.shelley@nasa.gov
