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 - 4066
(979) 693-0017

Expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) upon completion of contract: 4

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 next generation Constellation Space Suit Element (CSSE). 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 and water contaminants. A new pump type is needed. In Phase I, the feasibility of reducing the power consumption of Lynntech's electrochemically-driven fluid pump by employing high conductivity hydrocarbon-based electrochemical membranes was demonstrated. In Phase II, Lynntech will develop a fluid pump significantly more robust, and more efficient than the pumps currently used in space suit PLSSs.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
A rugged, long life, low power, compact fluid pump will have applications in the thermal subsystem of the Primary Life Support System (PLSS) of the next generation space suit. Lynntech's fluid pump will be more efficient, lighter, and more robust the centrifugal pump currently used in the Shuttle Extravehicular Mobile unit (EMU). Additionally, Lynntech's pump does not suffer from cavitation issues and is not susceptible to water impurities, like the Shuttle EMU pump.

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. In particular, the interest in a low-cost, lightweight, quiet, efficient liquid pump for laptop cooling is high. Another potentially large market is thermal management systems for small fuel cell power systems.

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