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High tech invention awards NASA NEWS RELEASE Posted: April 2, 2005 NASA announced the 2004 NASA Government and Commercial Inventions of the Year Award winners March 31. The Government Award went to researchers for their work in developing a thermal barrier and Space Shuttle solid rocket motor joint design. The Commercial Award went to the developer of a state-of-the-art high-temperature resin with numerous government and commercial applications. Dr. Bruce Steinetz and Patrick Dunlap of NASA's Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, won the Government Award. Their innovation is a unique, flexible, braided carbon- fiber thermal barrier designed to withstand the extreme-temperature environments in solid rocket motors and other industrial equipment. Dr. Ruth Pater of NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., won the Commercial Invention of the Year Award for development of a thermosetting (permanently solidifying when heated) high-temperature polyimide resin system. Called LARC(TM) RP46, the resin was developed as a more environmentally friendly alternative to currently used resins. "Our technical evaluation placed on the government invention a present value to America of approximately one-quarter billion dollars. Its use on the Space Shuttle and Atlas V rocket programs represents mission-critical successes," said NASA's Chief Engineer Rex Geveden. He chairs the Inventions and Contributions Board that makes the annual award. "These inventions represent technologies that will serve NASA, as we implement the Vision for Space Exploration, while also contributing to advances in commercial aerospace applications," Geveden added. The revolutionary new thermal barrier solves the vexing problem of blocking 5,500-degree Fahrenheit rocket-combustion gases from reaching temperature- sensitive O-rings, while still allowing 900 pound-per-square-inch gases to properly seat them. This has been a problem challenging rocket motor designers for decades. The resin developed by Pater is relatively inexpensive, and it can be readily processed into a high-quality graphite-fiber-reinforced composite. The resin can be used in temperatures ranging from minus 150 degrees to 700 degrees Fahrenheit, and hot spikes up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit for short periods. The composite material can push the service temperature to the limits of organic materials. It also gives a competitive edge in applications requiring very high temperature, light weight, high strength, chemical and moisture resistance. The resin can also be used as an adhesive, molding, coating, foam or film. The sales and use of the resin system have increased dramatically since the first commercial sales in 2001. Due to its increasing success, the technology won the Langley Research Center Paul F. Holloway Technology Transfer Award for 2004. Commercial applications include automotive transportation, defense, sporting goods, electronics, oil drilling and civil engineering. Commercialization of the polyimide in these market sectors is being pursued through Unitech, LLC, Hampton, Va., under a non-exclusive license from NASA. Emerging systems, such as the next generation reusable launch vehicle, U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor jet fighter, the Joint Strike Fighter, and many other defense and commercial systems, will contain components manufactured from LARC(TM) RP46. |
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Walk alongside space shuttle Discovery as the motorized transporter hauls the ship a quarter-mile from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building. (3min 21sec QuickTime file)
This time-lapse movie captured from an overhead camera shows space shuttle Discovery's middle-of-the-night departure from its processing hangar at Kennedy Space Center to the roll to the Vehicle Assembly Building. (4min 30sec file)
Discovery arrives in the Vehicle Assembly Building as viewed in this time-lapse movie. The shuttle will be mated to the redesigned external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters in the VAB before rolling to the launch pad for the first post-Columbia mission. (5min 00sec file)
A foot-long Russian nanosatellite is flung overboard by the spacewalking International Space Station Expedition 10 crew. Station cameras watched the hand-launched deployment and the nanosat as it floated away. (4min 52sec file)
Highlights of the second spacewalk of the International Space Station's Expedition 10 crew is compiled into this movie. The crew completed external outfitting of gear that will guide European cargo ships to the outpost during dockings starting in 2006. (5min 00sec file)
Mission managers preview the next spacewalk by the Expedition 10 crew aboard the International Space Station, which will install external equipment on the Russian segment and hand-launch a tiny nanosatellite. (37min 00sec file)
This video retrospective remembers the first flight of space shuttle Endeavour. The maiden voyage set sail in May 1992 to rescue the Intelsat 603 communications spacecraft, which had been stranded in a useless orbit. Spacewalkers attached a rocket booster to the satellite for the critical boost to the correct altitude.
This video retrospective remembers the 2002 mission of Columbia that made a long distance service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, giving the observatory a new power system and extending its scientific reach into the Universe. Astronauts performed five highly successful spacewalks during the mission.
This retrospective remembers the third voyage of space shuttle Columbia. The March 1982 mission served as another developmental test flight for the reusable spacecraft, examining performance of its systems while also conducting a limited science agenda. STS-3 is distinguished by making the first landing at Northrup Strip in White Sands, New Mexico.