NASA SBIR 2016 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Creare, LLC
16 Great Hollow Road
Hanover, NH 03755 - 3116
(603) 643-3800

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Weibo Chen PhD
wbc@creare.com
16 Great Hollow Road
Hanover, NH 03755 - 3116
(603) 643-3800 Extension :2425

CORPORATE/BUSINESS OFFICIAL (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Robert Kline-Schoder
contractsmgr@creare.com
16 Great Hollow Road
Hanover, NH 03755 - 3116
(603) 643-3800 Extension :2487

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

Technology Available (TAV) Subtopics
Thermal Control Systems is a Technology Available (TAV) subtopic that includes NASA Intellectual Property (IP). Do you plan to use the NASA IP under the award?
No

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
NASA's future remote sensing science missions require advanced thermal management technologies to provide effective cooling for multiple instruments and reject heat through multiple radiators. Two-phase pumped loops are an ideal solution for these applications. A critical need for these pumped loops is a refrigerant pump that reliably circulates very slightly subcooled liquid refrigerant in the loop. To this end, Creare proposes to develop an efficient, vibration-free pump that has design features to prevent cavitation in the pumping chamber and in the hydrodynamic fluid bearings, and thus enables the pump to achieve a long service life. The development of the refrigerant pump will be built on Creare's proven high-speed turbomachine technologies for space applications. In Phase I, we will prove the feasibility of the refrigerant pump by developing a preliminary pump design, predicting its overall performance, and demonstrating its key features by testing. In Phase II, we will optimize the pump design, fabricate the pump, demonstrate its steady state and transient performance in a representative pumped loop, and deliver it to NASA JPL for further performance evaluation.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The proposed refrigerant pump will enable reliable two-phase pumped loops for efficient and precision thermal control of critical instruments in remote sensing science satellites and exploration vehicles, including the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission that aims to survey Earth's surface water and map ocean surface height with greater detail than previously recorded. The pump technology also has applications in circulating condensate in water recovery systems, in mixing and transferring cryogens and propellants in space propellant depots.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The reliable refrigerant circulation pump technology also has applications for advanced two-phase thermal control systems for high power electronics systems in commercial and military satellites and aircraft, as well as circulating pumps for chemicals, fuels, and cryogenic fluids.