MAINSTREAM ENGINEERING CORP — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: Z2.01

Description

NASA has identified a need for higher heat rejection temperatures due to an equatorial lunar mission profile, where surface temperatures reach 400 K. To meet this need for space exploration vehicles to reject waste heat to high temperature heat sinks, Mainstream proposes adapting our oil-less vapor-compression (V-C) refrigeration compressor technology for operation at high temperature and high lift. Vapor-compression systems use two-phase heat transfer which reduces component size and mass over single-phase heat pumping cycles such as reverse-Brayton or Stirling. Mainstream?s current oil-less V-C compressor technology is gravity-insensitive, has a long operating life, can be scaled to match various heat loads, and has been mission-proven on the international space station (ISS) placing it at a TRL 9. The proposed development effort will extend this compressor technology to operation at high temperatures and high lift, to which it is inherently well-suited. The resulting compressor will be an enabling technology for the needed high temperature heat pumping systems.