Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer
Reconfigurable Secondary Composite Building Blocks for Expandable Habitable Structure
Project Description
ZIN Technologies, Inc. will provide a preliminary design showing the feasibility of a Reconfigurable Multi-functional Architecture (RMA) for a deployable floor secondary structure. This will address NASA requirements for innovative deployable secondary structures that have minimal mass, high packaging efficiency, and multi-functional utilization. The primary usage of the floor will be to provide a light weight, deployable walkway for a habitat, which meets the appropriate strength, stiffness, and stability requirements. In Phase 1, ZIN will design, analyze and breadboard the necessary joints to enable the structure to be readily deployed and/or un-deployed, while maintaining the appropriate stiffness. The secondary purpose of the floor will be to take advantage of the walkway's cross sectional geometry and utilize it to provide water storage within the floor. The floor will house electrical and plumbing interfaces, which will connect these utilities between two sides of the module. An addition of electrical outlets within the structure will be provided upon need. Possible features include making the floor reconfigurable to serve as a radiation shield. ZIN will develop universal joints, to enable crew members to disassemble the flooring system and re-assemble it into other secondary or EVA structures. The proposed Phase 1 effort will be geared towards a full scale Phase 2 demonstrator, to show the floor system usage in a relevant environment and raise the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of RMA structures. The RMA structure we propose will provide a highly robust, stiff and mass efficient surface within a primary structure that will enable the useful outfitting and pre-integration of subsystems within the primary volume
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Anticipated Benefits
Low mass, high strength deployable structures have applications both commercially, and for other government agencies outside of NASA. Commercial, lightweight deployable systems are needed for everything from temporary (emergency) shelters to providing the means to have a removable roof in a dome stadium. While the materials may change, the critical feature is often the joint. The proposed improvements in analytical tools for joint development and design will insure that innovative solutions can be created which make better usage of the material's strength while providing a savings in mass.
The technology we plan to develop for creating robust joints for deployable floor systems has applications in many other structures for lunar and long duration missions. With the limitations of up-mass and cargo volume of carrier vehicles, the need for reconfigurable, versatile, deployable structures for short and long term interplanetary bases is extremely strong. Development of the proposed reconfigurable joint/structure designs will be essential to the later development of secondary structures using already available hardware. These systems are traditionally limited by the stiffness of the component connections, and therefore further effort is needed to develop and verify joint design techniques for implementation into future exploratory systems. Additionally, the addition of water storage into the flooring system and a potential radiation shield provides added versatility and safety to the overall habitat. More »
The technology we plan to develop for creating robust joints for deployable floor systems has applications in many other structures for lunar and long duration missions. With the limitations of up-mass and cargo volume of carrier vehicles, the need for reconfigurable, versatile, deployable structures for short and long term interplanetary bases is extremely strong. Development of the proposed reconfigurable joint/structure designs will be essential to the later development of secondary structures using already available hardware. These systems are traditionally limited by the stiffness of the component connections, and therefore further effort is needed to develop and verify joint design techniques for implementation into future exploratory systems. Additionally, the addition of water storage into the flooring system and a potential radiation shield provides added versatility and safety to the overall habitat. More »
Primary U.S. Work Locations and Key Partners
| Organizations Performing Work | Role | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZIN Technologies Inc. | Lead Organization |
Industry
Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB)
|
Middleburg Hts, Ohio |
Marshall Space Flight Center
(MSFC)
|
Supporting Organization | NASA Center | Huntsville, Alabama |
Primary U.S. Work Locations
-
Alabama
-
Ohio
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This is a historic project that was completed before the creation of TechPort on October 1, 2012. Available data has been included. This record may contain less data than currently active projects.