IDC (single-award IDV) NND12AD71CCONTROLLED DYNAMICS INC.

Description of requirement

IGF::OT::IGF OTHER FUNCTIONS. PROPOSAL TITLE: FACILITY FOR MICROGRAVITY RESEARCH AND SUBMICRORADIAN STABILIZATION USING SRLVS. PROPOSAL NO. 12-12GCTA_PRO_0067. THIS PROPOSAL DEVELOPS AN ECONOMICAL, HIGH-PERFORMANCE FACILITY FOR BOTH MICROGRAVITY RESEARCH AND SUBMICRORADIAN STABILIZATION BY INTEGRATING A SHUTTLE-PROVEN VIBRATION ISOLATION TECHNOLOGY INTO SUBORBITAL REUSABLE LAUNCH VEHICLES (SRLVS). SRLVS PROVIDE AFFORDABLE, FREQUENT ACCESS TO AN AMBIENT MILLI-G FLIGHT ENVIRONMENT FOR PERIODS OF 4 TO 15 MINUTES. WITHOUT FURTHER ISOLATION, HOWEVER, QUIESCENT ENVIRONMENTS FOR THE RESEARCH PAYLOAD ARE DISRUPTED BY ON-BOARD DISTURBANCES FROM VEHICLE EQUIPMENT, THERMAL CREAK , CREW MOTION (IF APPLICABLE), AIR CURRENTS, VENTILATION, ACOUSTICS, OTHER PAYLOADS, OR EVEN THE RESEARCH EXPERIMENT ITSELF. BY INTEGRATING OUR SPACEFLIGHT-PROVEN VIBRATION ISOLATION TECHNOLOGY INTO THE SRLVS, WE FURTHER REDUCE THE AMBIENT FLIGHT ENVIRONMENT BY OVER TWO ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE DURING OPERATION. USING A COMBINATION OF NON-CONTACT ISOLATION AND ACTIVE ATTENUATION, WE WILL PROVIDE QUIESCENT ENVIRONMENTS FOR THE RESEARCH PAYLOAD ON THE ORDER OF 1 MICRO-G RMS OR BETTER OVER A BROADBAND FREQUENCY RANGE (>0.1HZ) DURING THE COAST PHASE OF THE SRLV FLIGHT. THIS EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE IS ACHIEVED BY COMBINING CURRENT GENERATION ACCELEROMETERS AND ELECTRONICS WITH THE SHUTTLE-PROVEN STABLE MICROGRAVITY ISOLATION TECHNOLOGY, THE WORLD S FIRST ACTIVE MICROGRAVITY VIBRATION ISOLATION SYSTEM SUCCESSFULLY FLOWN IN SPACE. IN PHASE 1 WE DEVELOP A TEST READINESS LEVEL -6 (TRL-6) PROTOTYPE OF OUR SRLV PAYLOAD ISOLATION SYSTEM SUCH THAT IT IS GROUND-TESTED, TUNED, AND READY FOR INTEGRATION AND FLIGHT TESTING ON AN SRLV. IF SELECTED FOR PHASE 2, THE PROTOTYPE SYSTEM WILL BE INTEGRATED AND FLOWN ON AN SRLV TO CHARACTERIZE PERFORMANCE AND DEMONSTRATE THIS NEW CAPABILITY TO THE SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING RESEARCH COMMUNITIES. APPLICABLE TO ANY RESEARCH PAYLOAD, OUR ISOLATION SYSTEM IS INTEGRATED INTO THE MOUNTING STRUCTURE, LEAVING THE MAJORITY OF THE VEHICLE S PAYLOAD VOLUME TO THE RESEARCH EXPERIMENT. APPLICABLE TO ANY SRLV, WE PROVIDE COMPONENT-LEVEL ISOLATION OF THE RESEARCH PAYLOAD ITSELF WITHOUT IMPOSING ANY UNUSUAL CONSTRAINTS ON THE HOST VEHICLE. THIS MAKES THE TECHNOLOGY APPLICABLE TO A WIDE SPECTRUM OF SPACE VEHICLES INCLUDING PILOTED AND UNPILOTED SRLVS, ORBITAL RLVS, AND THE FULL RANGE OF FREE-FLYING SATELLITES. THUS, FUNDS INVESTED IN DEVELOPING AND EXTENDING THIS TECHNOLOGY OFFER A HIGH RETURN-ON-INVESTMENT DUE TO THE UNMATCHED PERFORMANCE OF THE TECHNOLOGY AND ITS GENERAL APPLICABILITY TO A BROAD RANGE OF HOST VEHICLES. BY COMBINING THE BEST POSSIBLE ISOLATION TECHNOLOGY WITH THE RAPID TURN-A-ROUND AND IMMEDIATE SAMPLE RETURN CAPABILITIES OF THE SRLV, THIS TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT WILL PROVIDE AFFORDABLE ACCESS TO MICROGRAVITY AND SUBMICRORADIAN ENVIRONMENTS AND, THUS, ENABLE A ROBUST EXPANSION OF SPACE RESEARCH, COMMERCIALIZATION, AND SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.