NASA SBIR 2009 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Hyper-Therm High-Temperature Composites
18411 Gothard Street, Units B&C
Huntington Beach, CA 92648 - 1208
(714) 375-4085

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Robert Shinavski
robert.shinavski@htcomposites.com
18411 Gothard Street, Units B&C
Huntington Beach, CA 92648 - 1208
(714) 375-4085

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
Durable high temperature materials are required for reusable hypersonic structural thermal protection systems. In particular, temperatures exceeding 2700ºF, and approaching 3000ºF, are targeted for capable structural materials that can survive stresses on the order of 10 ksi (70 MPa) for at least 100 hours in an oxidizing environment. Such materials have been identified as an enabling material for future hypersonic vehicles As this application is structural, a strong degree of damage tolerance is desired, and thus ceramic matrix composites
are the primary choice due to the desire for reduced weight, high temperature strength and oxidation resistance. Silicon carbide fiber-reinforced silicon carbide matrix (SiC/SiC) composites are believed to be the most suitable solution due to meeting the requirements
with the limitations of creep at the highest temperatures/loads, and oxidative attack at stresses that exceed the materials proportional limit. The proposed effort will define the temperature-stress limit of SiC/SiC composites, and examine methods to further extend this limit.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The development of advanced ceramic composite materials and components with enhanced thermal-structural performance over those currently available directly supports future enabling technologies for hypersonic thermal protection systems that are durable and reusable. Applications for SiC/SiC composites in advanced airbreathing combined-cycle propulsion systems and control surfaces for reusable hypervelocity and exo/transatmospheric aerospace vehicles are directly addressed by this technology. These potential applications are critically dependent on the development of advanced materials capable of high-performance load-bearing operation up to and beyond 1500^oC (2700^oF). Successful demonstration of the life at temperature of the CMC concept could result in a valuable near term increase in airframe performance and reliability for a variety of hot structures and thermal protection systems critical to both DoD and NASA high-speed aircraft and re-entry vehicles.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Other viable near-term applications for SiC/SiC composites with enhanced temperature capability include expendable chemical rocket thrusters for orbital insertion, attitude control system and/or divert thrust chamber components for commercial and military communication spacecraft and/or various ballistic missile defense KE intercept weapons. Opportunities for application in turbine engine augmentors (e.g., converging/diverging exhaust nozzle flaps and seals) and internal turbine engine components for military and civilian aero-propulsion systems also exist.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING (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.)

Aircraft Engines Ceramics Composites Launch and Flight Vehicle Reuseable Thermal Insulating Materials