SCIENTIFIC APPLICATIONS & RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: AF191-041

Description

The continuing advancement if research and development in the field of hypersonic weapons by Russia and China presents an urgent need for the United States to expand its own capabilities in similar regimes. Specifically, there exists an exigent need for rapid-turnaround hypersonic velocity testing of weapons, systems and countermeasures. SARA Is proud to present the Explosively Retro-Propulsed (ERP) Hypersled Impulse Brake (HIB). The primary challenge in any propellant based hypersonic braking systems are that retro-rockets are costly, present significant thermal stresses, and suffer significant efficiency losses as the ambient pressure at the exhaust plane increases due to atmospheric stagnation effects. In 1974, NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory explored these concepts for use in planetary missions. In these systems the high detonation pressures developed during micro explosions mitigation the parasitic delta-P effects present at the exhaust plane of the braking device. The primary momentum-exchange mechanism behind ERP systems is the ejection of high-density stagnation gases gathered from stagnation locales. Placement of an ERP system on the forward-facing surface of a hypersonic vehicle allows for the collection and subsequent expulsion of stagnation gasses resulting in a propellant based braking system that operates cheaper, cleaner and more efficiently than traditional chemical propellant