https://www.engadget.com/2203145/nasa-tests-in-orbit-refueling-device-deep-space-missions/
Future deep space missions may need to refuel in orbit before they can head to their final destinations. NASA has been working on in-orbit refueling solutions for years, and one of its latest efforts is testing a "cryocoupler" developed by American tech company L3Harris. You can think of the cryocoupler as the nozzle of a gas pump, which is needed so it can fit a car's fuel tank. Cryocouplers will allow spacecraft to link to orbiting gas stations, so they can fill up before they leave the vicinity of our planet.
"In-orbit cryogenic refueling between two spacecraft has yet to be done and remains one of the toughest engineering challenges in spaceflight," said Travis Belcher, cryocoupler project manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Effective cryocouplers will have to be able to facilitate the transfer of extremely cold fluid, such as liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, without leaking. And since these propellants have to stay chilled at hundreds of degrees below Fahrenheit, the device will need to have the proper materials and strong seals. They (obviously) cannot be manually operated, as well.
"The cryocouplers we're working on can attach and detach multiple times and are fully automated, so astronauts won't have to perform a spacewalk to transfer propellant," Belcher added. "They're rigorously designed to withstand space and sized for the expected tank designs."
To test L3Harris' cryocoupler, Belcher's team ran liquid nitrogen at negative 321 degrees Fahrenheit through several connected and disconnected configurations. Those tests provided the team with data on how the device reacts to significant temperature differences. They also put the coupler through operational tests, such as simulations of misaligned dockings, as the device was designed to accommodate some degree of misalignment.
It's early days for L3Harris' cryocoupler, so these tests are pretty basic. Belcher says future tests will be designed for specific missions, so the coupler can be assessed according to those missions' requirements. For now, you can watch part of the test below.
Engineers from #NASAMarshall and L3Harris are testing a technology vital for in-orbit refueling: https://t.co/oeqGBtvzpj pic.twitter.com/4w6HErAIAq
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Sunday July 05, @02:09AM
I wonder what pressures they work at? At cryo, the stuff I saw was only a few torr. You had to heat it to get pressure.
Can superconducting electromagnets can be considered in addition to mechanical ( which are subject to thermal expansion ) construction. Thermal expansion and contraction - useful for the final locking after magnetic positioning? Watch out for cold welds if metal clamps metal at cryo temps! Some were considering fluoropolymers for their cold flow characteristics. I was a younger guy then...I was mostly lurking, taking what I could in, just as I do here , if you guys start discussing things I know little about. I shut up, listen, and hopefully run a question up the pole to see if anyone salutes.
I remember some of the old codgers at the aerospace plant I used to work at discussing this same thing before a big company , focused on business , bought us and laid most of us off. I didn't survive the layoffs. The older engineers retired. Most didn't want to retire. ( Sad state of affairs...their wives did not want them around the house! For years, hubby was at work and bringing them a good paycheck, but now they have to put up with an old coot in the house! ).
I still ponder what would have become of us had the financiers not taken an interest in us. I think it takes someone like an Elon Musk or NASA to manage things like this. There is still much to be learned in the details of physical law.
This was a long time ago. The old men worked on the Apollo spacecraft and it's fuel issues. There was lots of very interesting commentary at "bullshit" sessions as these guys would often personally build little gadgets to see what we overlooked.
Once the buyer executized upper leadership with modern business-school paradigms, no more "bullshit". Having everyone interested in this sort of thing brain storming on it, bouncing things off each other....well, it was an accounting nightmare! What number are they charging? The answer was right in our face. Charge Numbers. Compartmentalization. Cubicles. Status reports. Our productivity can now be measured, collated, and presented as evidence of work done with a resolution of six minutes! Kinda like a BitCoin. No useful work done, but you now have proof that resources were consumed. The pinnacle of paperwork to make productivity measurable. Why, it was so simple it could be done on a bathroom scale. Modern AI is really good at this, Especially when it's driving modern xerographic machinery
With the advent of extremely accurate cost accounting, gantt charts, charge numbers, planning meetings, computerized presentation technology, all this lone-wolf inefficient testing of concepts by some engineer chasing down some trivial anomaly where things didn't go as he expected , went away, replaced by rounds of concept presentation packages and artwork for the boardroom, approvals, then yet more presentations to reveal what was overlooked - that is - after it has been constructed and delivered to the customer. Why chase problems that , for now , only exist in the mind of some engineer , who can simply be replaced if he got vocal about it?
Why concern oneself with real world physics, most of which we have no absolute mathematic model. Close enough is close enough, right? Perfection is the enemy of the good-enough.
We replaced testing and verification with psychology.and businesstalk.
And what's worse, we threw away the old stuff.
But the whole world didn't. Thank goodness.
We can always print more currency to have another country to build our stuff. Signature by signature, handshake by handshake, we sell our inheritance to those who didn't throw their most precious resources away.
I am seeing our chickens come home to roost. I am preparing my estate plans with family. I am entertaining offers for my house from foreign investors. The kids in my neighborhood can't even come close, even with parental help. International financiers/investment class have all the money, operating under tax structures we voted our representatives to implement. What I really prefer to do is transfer the property intact, but location is wrong - Southern California - where the local politicians have no compunction about their powers to assess and collect, or foreclose with a tax sale. The tax breaks are valid only if one is in the rental business.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]