Half-Day HEEET Workshop - I Defining Heat Shield Capability Needs for Extreme Entry Environment Missions in Support of 3-D Woven, Ablative TPS Technology Maturation Date: July 30, 2013 This is an announcement about an opportunity to learn about a new woven ablative thermal protection system under development by NASA. This effort is funded by the Game Changing Development Program (GCDP) of the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) and led by NASA Ames Research Center (ARC), Moffett Field, California. The half-day workshop, scheduled for July 30, 2013, will provide mission designers with insight into the Woven Thermal Protection System (WTPS) technology, design studies performed to-date, capability requirements identified and technology development risks and risk mitigation strategies. The goal of the workshop is to engage with mission designers and proposal teams to assess and improve the focus of the current development in order for the technology to feed into upcoming New Frontier proposals. As part of the technology maturation, our current plans are to involve industries in manufacturing and scale-up of WTPS and begin the technology transfer process as part of the technology maturation to benefit future missions in a cost effective manner. The workshop will benefit TPS material developers, advanced textile and weave manufacturers, resin infusion processing vendors and the prime aerospace companies that integrate systems and sub-systems to support NASA missions to inner and outer-planets, so we encourage their participation as well. DESCRIPTION Under sponsorship of the Game Changing Development Program (GCDP) of the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) and the Planetary Science Division (PSD) of the Science Mission Directorate (SMD), NASA Ames Research Center will host a half-day workshop to facilitate engagement between the mission design community and the WTPS technology developers. In FY12 GCDP competitively selected a proposal to undertake initial concept feasibility studies of WTPS. The successful demonstration of the WTPS architecture during this feasibility study led to GCDP support for ARC to conduct a formulation planning activity defining a three-year technology maturation project, Heat Shield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET). HEEET will start in FY14 with the goal of maturing the WTPS technology to TRL 5/6 in three years with a primary objective of supporting upcoming New Frontier Announcement of Opportunity missions that need robust, mass efficient and cost effective ablative TPS. The near term mission targets include, but are not limited to, Venus Lander, Venus and Saturn probe missions, and high speed sample return missions, where entry environments exceed the capability of current state of the art heat shield TPS such as PICA and Avcoat, and for which heritage like carbon phenolic (tape wrapped and chop molded) is either mass inefficient and/or mass infeasible and hence science limiting. HEEET is more than just a carbon phenolic replacement; it provides targeted capability development to enable mission designs that cannot be conceived of today. The HEEET project formulation team desires to engage the user community early in the formulation phase in order to better define a common set of capability requirements suitable for a wide range of missions and also to engage the community in defining what TRL 5/6 maturation that can enable a wide range of destination and mission. The intent of this workshop is to ensure successful technology maturation that leads to direct mission insertion to enable science missions that are not feasible today. This workshop is envisioned to be the first in a series of workshops (annual or bi-annual is TBD) to be held starting this year and ending in FY16. This ongoing direct interaction between the mission designers and the technology developers will enable the technology developers to better formulate a plan that will meet the end user requirements. During project execution, the interactions will allow mission design teams to assess the progress of WTPS as well as provide feedback that the technology development team may be able to implement to develop broader capabilities, if cost and schedule constraints permit. These interactions should allow the mission design teams to propose missions utilizing the matured WTPS technology with risk, cost and schedule realism. This workshop will be ITAR restricted. Participants must be U.S. persons and associated with U.S. entities. Participants will be required to sign non-disclosure and other agreements as deemed appropriate prior to participation in the workshop. Participation will be limited and prioritized based on the benefit to HEEET project maturation effort. EVENT DATE AND LOCATION The event will be held on Tuesday, July 30, 2013 at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California and via WebEx. TIMES Presentation: 8:30 -11:30 am PDT Team members will be available for individual discussions, following the workshop, upon request. WHO SHOULD ATTEND? Mission designers and proposal team members concerned with missions requiring extreme entry environments are encouraged to attend. Potential material suppliers as well as aerospace organizations supporting NASA and DoD missions are welcome as well. Attendees are required to be U.S. persons. ITAR information may be presented. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/REGISTRATION All attendees must register in advance, even if attending only via WebEx. For more information and to register, please contact Ron Chinnapongse at 650-604-4979 or
[email protected]. RSVPs are requested by July 22, 2013 and must include name, affiliation, contact information and indication of U.S. citizenship. Approved attendees will be given specific building location, directions and WebEx information with their registration confirmation.