Volume 9, Number 6 • November/December 2001 • Advanced Technologies

Composite Tank Passes Proof Tests

A joint effort between NASA and Lockheed Martin has resulted in the development and successful initial testing of the first subscale cryogenic tank built of a composite material that is compatible with liquid oxygen. Lockheed Martin designed and built the composite tank, and NASA is testing it at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama.

The tank has successfully completed the initial cycles of cryogenic, or very low temperature, proof testing in liquid oxygen. In testing, the tank is enduring thermal and pressure environments that simulate the flight conditions a liquid oxygen tank would experience on a space launch vehicle. The tank also will undergo lifecycle testing at MSFC to demonstrate mission life capabilities. “This marks a real advance in space technology,” said Michael Phipps, NASA project manager for this material characteristics development unit. “No approved standards for composite pressure vessels exist; there has not been enough information on them to write standards. So the technical data we are getting from this effort is very valuable.”

Engineers, at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, prepare a composite liquid oxygen tank for testing. The tank was designed and built by Lockheed Martin. Photo provided by Marshall Space Flight Center.

Using state-of-the-art cryogenic composite tank analysis, fabrication and inspection techniques, the Lockheed Martin/NASA team designed and constructed the tank at both MSFC and the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana. The composite tank is approximately nine feet (2.7 meters) in length and four feet (1.2 meters) in diameter, and weighs less than 500 pounds (225 kilograms), which represents an 18 percent weight savings over a metal tank of similar construction.

Composites are seen as one of the key components in the drive by NASA and the aerospace industry to decrease the weight of future launch vehicles as a means of reducing the cost of launching payloads into orbit from the current $10,000 per pound to $1,000 per pound.

That is one of the goals of NASA’s second-generation Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) program—a research and technology development effort that also aims to substantially improve safety and reliability. MSFC manages this program for NASA. Q

For more information, contact Michael Phipps at Marshall Space Flight Center, 256/544-0828, michael.Phipps@msfc.nasa.gov. Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

NASA Official: Jonathan Root • Web Design: Printing & Design Office, NASA Headquarters • Credits