Miniature Separable Fill & Drain Valve

NASA's technique simplifies the seat installation process by requiring less installation equipment, eliminating the need for unnecessary apparatus such as fasteners and retainers. Multiple seals can be installed simultaneously, saving both time and money. NASA has tested the long-term performance of a solenoid actuated valve with a seat that was fitted using the new installation technique. The valve was fabricated and tested to determine high-cycle and internal leakage performance for an inductive pulsed plasma thruster (IPPT) application for in-space propulsion. The valve demonstrated the capability to throttle the gas flow rate while maintaining low leakage rates of less than 10-3 standard cubic centimeters per second (sccss) of helium (He) at the beginning of the valves lifetime. The IPPT solenoid actuated valve test successfully reached 1 million cycles with desirable leakage performance, which is beyond traditional solenoid valve applications requirements. Future design iterations can further enhance the valve's life span and performance. The seat seal installation method is most applicable to small valve instruments that have a small orifice of 0.5 inches or less.

The CSV replaces a standard spacecraft Fill and Drain Valve to facilitate cooperative servicing. The CSV offers various advantages over standard service valves: a robotic interface, three individually actuated seals, a self-contained anti-back drive system, and built-in thermal isolation. When mounted to a spacecraft as designed, the CSV transfers all operational and induced robotic loads to the mounting structure. An anti-back drive mechanism prevents the CSV seal mechanism from inadvertent actuation. Alignment marks, thermal isolation, and a mechanical coupling capable of reacting operational and robotic loads optimize the CSV for tele-robotic operations. Unique keying of the mating interface prevents mixing of media where more than one configuration of the CSV is used. Color-coding and labels are also used to prevent operator error. The CSV has four configurations for different working fluids, all with essentially unchanged geometry and mechanics.

Hybrid chemical motors offer an alternative to traditional liquid or solid motors for spacecraft, missiles, rockets, or other vehicles. The key advantage of a hybrid motor is the capability to throttle the motor via active control, which cannot be done in solid propellant motors. However, rapid throttling presents significant challenges to implement in practice. Here, NASA has combined a deep-throttling hybrid motor previously developed by Utah State University with a fast-acting digital valve design to produce a fast-acting, deep-throttling hybrid. Testing performed to-date using a prototype of the hybrid motor and digital valve design has shown the new hybrid motor to be capable of full-scale throttling twice as fast (1 second throttling compared to 2 seconds) as previous control valve designs. With optimization, there is potential full-range throttling may be further reduced to 0.5 second, a 4x improvement over previous control valve designs for hybrid motors. Additionally, smaller mid-range thrust changes have currently been measured in the 40:1 for relatively small motors (

NASA's cryogenic isolation valve technology uses solenoid valves powered by direct current (DC) electrical energy to control and redirect the energy stored in the upstream line pressure. Powering the solenoid valves only requires a DC power source capable of supplying 22 watts that can be distributed and controlled in an on/off manner. By achieving actuation using only upstream line pressure and a 22-watt DC power source, many additional support systems that are required for electromechanical and pneumatic actuation are eliminated. This reduction of parts results in several benefits, including reduced footprint, weight, and potential cost of the valve in addition to lower energy consumption. NASA fabricated several operational prototype valves using this technology for a rocket company. The table below shows the results of tests performed on these valves under cryogenic conditions. Please contact the NASA MSFC Technology Transfer Office for additional information.

Starting with a "clean sheet" for process and system design, the R5 Project Team charted a path, subsystem by subsystem, through commercial, industrial, automotive, and medical-grade components, to arrive at a functional baseline CubeSat (SX-series) bus. Although the R5 approach leans heavily on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware, there are instances where NASA custom-designed components have been determined to be the less expensive and faster-to-develop option. Such is the case for the SX cold-gas propulsion and maneuvering system’s High-Pressure Manifold, Thruster Pod, and Threaded Jet Inserts. The High-Pressure Manifold (MSC-27997-1) is a ported fluid distribution manifold that, relative to the SX-series CubeSat, distributes pressurized cold-gas to each Thruster Pod. Machined from high-grade aluminum, the SX-series manifold has a Maximum Design Pressure (MDP) of 3000 psig. The R5 team designed the manifold to accept a fuel tank, regulator, isolation valve, relief valve, transducer, and other COTS high-pressure fittings. There are four component Thruster Pods (MSC-27996-1) per each SX-series CubeSat, and each Thruster Pod is fed pressurized cold-gas from the High-Pressure Manifold. These pods are designed to be 3D-printed using additively-manufactured aluminum and are later machined to add female threads for the Threaded Jet Inserts, heli-coils, and valve ports. Each pod comprises three integrated propellant conduits that independently feed the Threaded Jet Inserts. Each directional jet has an assigned thruster valve, mounted to the Thruster Pod, which throttles the pressurized cold-gas for CubeSat propulsion and maneuvering about three linear and three rotational axes. Finally, the Threaded Jet Insert (MSC-27994-1) embodies a set-screw form factor, and relative to the SX-series CubeSat, threads into the outward-facing end of each Thruster Pod propellant conduit. Each jet is laser machined and employs an internal flow-through micro-nozzle to accelerate escaping gas fed from the thruster valve to produce thrust. These SX-series propulsion system innovations for R5 CubeSats may also have terrestrial applications across multiple industries where, for example, targeted high-velocity gas bursts, precise pneumatic micro-force, or modular choked-flow gas metering are required.