NASA is developing a lightweight one-piece regeneratively-cooled thrust chamber assembly (TCA) for liquid rocket engines. Liquid rocket engines create thrust through the expansion of combusted propellants within the TCA. Standard manufac

The two main sub-scale, ground-based rocket aerodynamics testing techniques hot-fire testing and cold-flow testing pose a series of tradeoffs. Hot-fire testing is generally much more accurate, but is often burdensome, costly, and requires long lead times due to desig

Researchers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center have developed new, modular fixtures for holding metal in place during the assembly and welding of cylindrical and conical sections of rocket bodies. Previous methods required time-consuming design, fabrication, and as

Innovators at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) developed a novel paraffin-based fuel and manufacturing process for use in hybrid rocket engines for the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV). The fuel has a suitable regression rate and additives for additional strength and

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed the NOVA zero leak, permanent isolation valve that helps prevent leaks in space propulsion systems. The actuator is made from nitinol, a heat activated non-explosive shape memory alloy, and the result is a valve that is much safer than the currently use

Lunar landers are critical to enabling NASA’s mission of sustained human presence on the Moon. These spacecraft require advanced landing technologies (e.g., sensors, algorithms, navigation loops) to enable automated and precise entry, descent, and landing (EDL) on planetary surfaces. EDL operations

Scientists at NASA's Glenn Research Center have developed and patented improved ohmic contacts, and a fabrication method for them, that will speed the production of silicon carbide (SiC) sensors and electronics that operate in high-temperature, harsh environments. Conventional fabrication techniques

NASA scientists have designed a novel heat treatment process that significantly improves the formability of high-performance aluminum-lithium (Al-Li) 2195 alloy plate stock. The heat treatment process dramatically reduces cracking and also improves the yield and range of product sizes/shapes that ca

NASA Kennedy Space Center seeks partners interested in the commercial application of a smart, environmentally friendly coating system for early detection and inhibition of corrosion and self-healing of mechanical damage without external intervention. This coating will have the inherent ability to de

Innovators at Langley Research Center (LaRC) have developed a design and method to improve efficiency in nuclear propulsion technology for long-distance space missions. The nuclear thermionic avalanche cell (NTAC) Augmented Nuclear Electric Propulsion and/or Nuclear Thermal Propulsion design surroun

Innovators at the NASA Glenn Research Center have developed a new oxide dispersion strengthened medium entropy alloy (ODS-MEA) using additive manufacturing (AM). ODS alloys, in which nano-scale ceramic particles are distributed within the metal, were originally developed to enhance mechanical proper

The Inductive Monitoring System (IMS) software utilizes techniques from the fields of model-based reasoning, machine learning, and data mining to build system monitoring knowledge bases from archived or simulated sensor data. Unlike some other machine learning techniques, IMS does not require exampl

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and collaborators at Utah State University have developed a prototype for a highly efficient hybrid motor designed for spacecraft. This innovative motor addresses the need for both substantial propulsion during orbital maneuvers and precise control for attitude adju

Low-cost, large-scale liquid rocket engines with regeneratively cooled nozzles will enable reliable and reduced-cost access to space. Coolant, contained under high pressure, circulates through a bank of channels within the nozzle to properly cool the nozzle walls to wi

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center has developed a novel turbine blade design and manufacturing approach that provides a significant reduction in turbine blade resonant vibration. In particular this innovation addresses the unique resonance vibration challenges of conventionally machined turbine bl

NASA engineers have developed a new approach to mitigating unwanted structural vibrations. NASA's method is fundamentally different from conventional passive and active vibration damping methods widely used today. Tension Element Vibration Damping uses disruptive modal coupling between two structure

Innovators at NASA's Glenn Research Center have developed a rapid processing method that produces stronger, tailored silicon carbide (SiC) tows and even heals damaged or otherwise low-quality fibers. Never before could poor-quality SiC fibers be healed and improved by this magnitude. T

Innovators at NASA Langley Research Center have developed a multi-spectral imaging pyrometer utilizing tunable optics. The system uses a conventional infrared imaging camera as the basis and then incorporates an ultrafast, all solid-state, tunable optical filter combined with unique data processing

Innovators at NASA's Glenn Research Center have conducted leading-edge research toward the development of silicon carbide (SiC) fibers and SiC/SiC ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) that can be used in high-temperature structural applications, such as hot components in gas turbine engines. Glenn has