Description: The proposed effort concerns technologies related to cryogenic propellant production, storage, transfer, and usage to support NASA’s in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) goals. They include a broad range of applications, scales, and environments consistent with future NASA missions to the Moon and Mars. More specifically, the project will address development of a piecewise-smooth set of correlations for use in lumped node codes to facilitate prediction of the entire cryogenic pool boiling curve (local wall heat flux versus wall-to-fluid temperature difference) encountered in cryogenic storage and transfer systems. This will include development of sub-models for all regions and transition points of the boiling curve as well as experimental validation of the same.

Benefits: The project will address development of correlations for use in lumped node codes to facilitate prediction of the entire cryogenic pool boiling encountered in cryogenic storage and transfer systems. Such predictive tools are expected to have broad application in several of NASA’s cryogenic applications, including cooling in Earth-orbiting satellites, rocket transfer, nuclear thermal propulsion, fuel management for in-space chemical rockets, and cryogenic fuel depots.

The main commercialization outcome for our firm will be robust, user-friendly software to enable thermal design and analysis of cryogenic space systems for use by not only NASA but aerospace companies as well, including SpaceX, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance. Other terrestrial applications include data centers, aircraft avionics, hydrogen storage, and both hybrid and electric vehicles.