The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $75,000 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  JOHNSON SPACE CENTER
  REDUCED MASS LEAK FREE HIGH PRESSURE GASEOUS HELIUM VALVE BIG HORN VALVE HAS COMPLETED A PHASE III PROJECT TO DEVELOP AN INHERENTLY LEAK FREE HIGH PRESSURE HELIUM VALVE. THIS PHASE III PROJECT MET THE CRITERIA REQUIRED FOR SUCCESSFUL STEP TO THE NEXT PHASE OF DEVELOPMENT. THE ONE AREA OF FAILURE; EXTERNAL LEAKAGE AT CRYOGENIC TEMPERATURES WAS DUE TO THE SHORTCOMINGS OF USING OFF-THE-SHELF HARDWARE, WHICH WE WERE REQUIRED TO DO BECAUSE OF BUDGETARY CONSTRAINTS. THESE LEAKS WERE CAUSED BY TWO STATIC SEALS WHICH COULD NOT BE MADE TO SEAL PROPERLY AT CRYOGENIC TEMPERATURES. DESIGN ALTERNATIVE RECOMMENDATIONS 1 DESIGN A CUSTOM NEEDLE VALVE WITH A SMALLER STEM. 2 EMPLOY PLANETARY GEARS IN THE PRESSURE CHAMBER TO MAGNIFY THE TORQUE FROM THE MAGNETIC COUPLING 3 DESIGN A CUSTOM PRESSURE CHAMBER FOR THE VALVE 4 SELECT A DRIVE MOTOR THAT HAS PROVEN PERFORMANCE IN CRYOGENIC ENVIRONMENTS WORK PLAN AND TECHNICAL APPROACH OBJECTIVE 1 1 DEVELOP A MODIFIED CONCEPT OF THE FNV4TSSX VALVE WITH SMALLER STEM 2 DESIGN A PLANETARY GEAR SET AND MATCHING MAGNETIC COUPLING THAT MEETS THE TORQUE REQUIREMENT OF THE MODIFIED VALVE 3 DESIGN A CUSTOM PRESSURE CHAMBER FOR THE PLANETARY GEARS AND INNER MAGNETIC CARTRIDGE 4 SELECT A STEPPER MOTOR TO DRIVE THE MAGNETIC COUPLING OBJECTIVE 2 BUILD TWO PROTOTYPES THAT INCORPORATE THE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A REDUCED MASS HIGH PRESSURE HELIUM VALVE 1 GENERATE FABRICATION DRAWINGS AND ORDER PARTS 2 ASSEMBLE AND PERFORM PRELIMINARY TESTS AT THE SHERIDAN, WY TESTING FACILITY 3 MAKE NECESSARY MODIFICATIONS AND PERFORM FINAL TESTS AT JSC PROGRAM IMPACT STORING COLD GASEOUS HELIUM(GHE) INCREASES DENSITY BY A FACTOR OF TWO ALLOWING FOR A SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION IN SYSTEM MASS AND VOLUME ALONG WITH REDUCED HEAT INPUT INTO THE CRYOGENIC PROPELLANTS. DEVELOPMENT OF A COLD HIGH-PRESSURE GHE VALVE FOR USE IN A CRYOGENIC PROPULSION SYSTEM IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF A NASA EFFORT TO DEVELOP THE NEXT GENERATION OF SPACE VEHICLES AND PROPELLANT DELIVERY SYSTEMS. CURRENTLY THERE ARE NO AVAILABLE COLD HELIUM ISOLATION COMMERCIAL-OFF-THE-SHELF (COTS) VALVES. THIS DEVELOPMENT PROJECT DIRECTLY ADDRESSES A SIGNIFICANT MAJOR MISSING COMPONENT IN SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE. UPON COMPLETION OF A PROVEN PROTOTYPE VALVE, SUBSEQUENT INTEGRATED CRYOGENIC TESTING CAN BE PERFORMED TO GENERATE A COMPLETE BASELINE INTEGRATED COLD SYSTEM SOLUTION FOR ADVANCE MISSION DESIGN ON CRYOGENIC SPACECRAFT, DEPOTS, ETC.

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