Proposal Number:          21-1- H5.02-2591

          

          

   

Subtopic Title:
      Hot Structure Technology for Aerospace Vehicles

          

          

   

Proposal Title:
      Low Cost Carbon-Carbon Composites for Hot Structures

          

          

   

Firm:

          

M4 Engineering, Inc.

          

   

Address:

          

4020 Long Beach Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90807

          

   

Phone:

          

(562) 981-7797                                                                                                                                                                                

          

   

Name:

          

Dr. MYLES BAKER

          

   

E-mail:

          

MYLES.BAKER@M4-ENGINEERING.COM

          

   

Address:

          

4020 Long Beach Boulevard, CA 90807 - 2683

          

   

Phone:

          

(562) 735-3805                                                                                                                                                                                

          

   

Name:

          

Kevin Roughen

          

   

E-mail:

          

kroughen@m4-engineering.com

          

   

Address:

          

4020 Long Beach Boulevard, CA 90807 - 2683

          

   

Phone:

          

(562) 981-7797                                                                                                                                                                                

          

   

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) :                                                                                                                                                          
Begin: 3
End: 4

          

          

     

Technical Abstract (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words):

The innovation proposed here is a novel carbon-carbon composite (CCC) manufacturing method that allows rapid manufacturing of relatively thick carbon-carbon structures and robust through-thickness reinforcement that significantly simplifies the attachment of a hot structure to a cold structure, as encountered in the interface of an aeroshell and the underlying structure in a hypersonic vehicle.  This results in the ability to make a highly integrated, load‑bearing, unitized skin‑stringer‑frame carbon‑carbon aeroshell that includes a mechanically and thermally advantageous joint to an internal cold structure such as a composite tank. The manufacturing innovations include a precursor resin improvement, a through-thickness reinforcement improvement, and an overall aeroshell design improvement that, when taken together, enable a revolutionary approach to hot structure design and manufacturing that has the potential to greatly improve performance, robustness, and reliability of such systems while precluding the need for a separate thermal protection system (TPS).

          

          

     

Potential NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words):

Aeroshells for descent/reentry missions, structures for hypersonic vehicles, propulsion structures such as nozzle extensions.

          

          

     

Potential Non-NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words):

Aeroshells, hot structures, and propulsion components for launch, reentry, and hypersonic vehicles.

          

          

     

Duration:     6