NASA SBIR 2007 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Lynntech, Inc.
7610 Eastmark Drive
College Station, TX 77840 - 4023
(979) 693-0017

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Roger van Boeyen
roger.vanboeyen@lynntech.com
7610 Eastmark Drive
College Station, TX 77840 - 4023
(979) 693-0017

Expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) upon completion of contract: 6

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
With the increasing demands placed on extravehicular activity (EVA) for the International Space Station assembly and maintenance, along with planned lunar and Martian missions, the need for increased human productivity and capability becomes ever more critical. This is most readily achieved by reduction in space suit weight and volume, and increased hardware reliability, durability, and operating lifetime. Considerable progress has been made with each successive generation of space suit design; from the Apollo A7L suit, to the current Shuttle Extravehicular Mobile Unit (EMU) suit, and the developmental I-Suit and Mark III suits. However, one area of space suit design which has continued to lag is the fluid pump used to drive the water cooling loop of the Primary Life Support System (PLSS). Conventional electric motor-driven fluid pumps are heavy, bulky, inefficient, and prone to wear. A new pump type is needed. Lynntech proposes to further reduce the size, weight and power consumption of its long-life, low-power, compact, lightweight, efficient electrochemically-driven pumps, which will allow their use in the next generation space suit.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
A rugged, long life, compact, light weight, efficient pump will have applications in the next generation of advanced Primary Life Support Systems (PLSS) for NASA's space suits. By replacing the existing electric motor-driven pump in the water cooling loop of the PLSS with Lynntech's electrochemically-driven pump, the size, weight and reliability of the PLSS will be significantly improved.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
With the increasing power density of electronics, there is a growing market for miniature, low-power pumps for use in the thermal management of consumer electronics. Some of the many other commercial applications that require reliable, efficient fluid pumps include environment water treatment, filtration, sterilizers, washing machines, fuel cells, and hydrogen generators.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Cooling Portable Life Support