Description: Lunar rovers and structures (habitats, landers) are critical to NASA’s Moon to Mars (Artemis) mission. Temperatures can change in minutes between (+/-)100C, as in a rover moving into a shadowed region in the lunar surface Although critical for their adequate function, thermal management in these has heretofore been given less attention in their design. Current, dynamically variable thermal control technologies are expensive and mostly impractical for lunar rovers and small structures. Thus, most current rover/structure designs have little provision for thermal management other than coatings, and use power-hungry heaters in cold. Now in prior NASA SBIR Phase II work, this firm developed and patented a novel electrochromic Variable Emissivity technology that is ideal for use in lunar rovers/structures. It comprises very inexpensive, thin (~0.1mm), flexible panels or “skins” that are cuttable with scissors to any shape/size and applied to the surface of structures, with: Calorimetric Emittance (ε) variation 0.12 to 0.80 switching times <30s; a(s) ~0.3, power usage +/- 1.5V, 30µW/cm^2; passed all relevant space-qualification tests terrestrially; current est. TRL 3 to 5. The proposed work will: Thermally model and finalize performance requirements for various lunar scenarios; optimize performance, demonstrate it meets requirements for all targeted lunar applications/scenarios; customize, integrate technology into Astrolab’s lunar rovers and HLS lander structures; space-qualify optimized technology terrestrially; book a spaceflight opportunity; design, demonstrate, initiate manufacture. Proposed PoP 24 months; expected ending TRL 7 to 8. Work is a collaboration between: this firm, (Ashwin); Venturi Astrolab, a lunar rover manufacturer; Small Satellites and Variable Emissivity group at U. California Irvine; and AshChromics, a manufacturer of electrochromics. 3rd party TVAC testing will be done at NASA-JSC and a university lab.

Benefits: If successful, NASA’s Moon to Mars (Artemis) initiative will, for the first time, have a technology applicable to lunar rovers, landers and habitats incorporating variable (dynamic) thermal control. The same technology could be used in other NASA missions, e.g. satellites, interplanetary, asteroid and deep-space missions, allowing for much greater flexibility in design of these future spacecraft.

Our Var-E thermal control technology is applicable equally well to large/small spacecraft, CubeSats and micro-satellites flying in constellation. Microspacecraft currently use power-hungry internal heaters for warming, otherwise entirely lacking dynamic thermal control. Our technology will yield much greater flexibility in design of small as well as large spacecraft, all at an extremely low cost.