R&D Support Services - Ad Astra Rocket Company Astra Capabilities Dec 2011.pdf• Helicon plasma sources that efficiently produce over 300 Amperes of directed ion current • Variety

Ad Astra Rocket Company


R&D Support Services


Ad Astra R&D Support Services

• Located in Webster, Texas and Liberia, Costa Rica.

• Ad Astra employs a team of PhD scientists, engineers and technicians skilled in

the design, fabrication and testing of prototype hardware.

• Ad Astra can support experimentation and testing with:

− Instrumentation, data acquisition and FPGA systems

− Mechanical design, 3D CAD, CAM, FEA Analysis

− Specialty machining to aerospace standards

− Large scale vacuum facilities

− Cryogenics

− Magnetic field environments

− Circuit-board and electrical fabrication

− Radio-frequency electrical engineering

− High power plasma sources

• Ad Astra can perform computer modeling of:

− Space trajectories (orbital mechanics)

− Heat and fluid flow

− RF-powered plasmas and plasma jets

− Magnetic systems and shielding


Two Facilities

• A Delaware Corporation, capitalizing on more than 25 years of NASA

R&D on plasma propulsion.

• Research and Engineering Facilities in USA and Costa Rica.

Corporate Headquarters in Webster, TX

24,000 sqft, near NASA’s Johnson Space Center

EARTH University, La Flor Campus, Liberia, Costa Rica


Laboratory Testing

• Instrumentation includes:

– Infrared camera

– Laser alignment

– Optical spectrometers

– Microwave interferometers

– Residual gas analyzer

– EMI sensors

– 3-axis magnetometer

– Retarding potential energy

analyzers

– Ion flux, single and double

Langmuir probes

– Plasma momentum flux

and force targets

– Data acquisition speeds up

to MHz range

– Vibrational Analysis

– Custom searchable

database software


Industrial Measurement & Automation

• National Instruments software and hardware

– National Instruments Certified LabVIEW Developer (CLD) on staff

– Experience with CompactRIO, CompactDAQ, PXI, SCXI, Motion,

& more

• MATLAB

– Multiple experienced developers of, automated, GUI’d analysis

routines

• PLCs

– Experienced developer of Allen-Bradley/Rockwell PLCs on staff

– Built and programmed PLC system to fully automate large

vacuum test facility

LabVIEW block diagram

LabVIEW rocket monitor GUI

MATLAB plasma probe analysis GUI


FPGA Capabilities

• FPGA coding, layout and downloading

using Xilinx ISE Design Suite and

IMPACT

• Finite State Machines (FSM),

Mealy/Moore

• Multi-microcontroller embedded

systems

• Mixed-signal processing

• Hardware controllers with interface to

external hardware


Mechanical Design and Drafting

• ProEngineer Wildfire 4.0

• Close communication with machinist to

assure manufacturability


Machining

Machinist and techs with over 20 years’ experience,

primarily building spaceflight hardware

Stainless Steel

Titanium

Aluminum

Machine shop Costa Rica

• State-of-the-art machine shops, flight certified

• Complex, high precision parts (e.g. liquid rocket engine injector plates)

• Will work closely with engineers to produce quality parts or assemblies

• Prototype and mockup shop

• Exotic metals and ceramics

• Full traceability

Machine shop USA


• 150, 10 and 5 m3 vacuum chambers • Pumping speeds over 300,000 ℓ/s

• End cap (14’) and personnel (3’) access

• Fast pump-down and vent

• Rail tracks for easy installation/removal

• Several large viewports (> 20 “), HD

internal video

• 2.5 m x 5 m precision translation stage

(other vacuum motion capability)

• Coaxial, HV/LV/multi-pin power/signal,

optical, thermocouple, and fluid feedthru

• de-ionized & regular chilled water –

100 kW cooling capacity

• Multi-channel data acquisition, NI-PXI

• 2 ton crane

• 1.5 MVA 480 VAC service

5 m3 high vacuum test chamber, USA 2-axis precision translation stage

150 m3, < 10-8 torr base pressure

Large Space Simulation Chamber, USA

Vacuum Testing

10 m3 vacuum test chamber , Costa Rica


Cryogenic Testing

In-house cryogenic testing

facilities

– 8 high lift cryocoolers

– 6000 gal. liquid nitrogen

bulk tank

– Cryogenic thermal load

testing and

characterization

– Three vacuum chambers

are used for thermal

vacuum insulation

– Experience with modifying

and testing a high

temperature

superconducting magnet

fixture for NASA

– Operation of a large scale

2 tesla cryogen-free

superconducting magnet


Electrical and RF Power Engineering

• Over 30 years of experience with high power RF systems, including analysis, design, and fabrication

• Altium schematic capture / PCB design, multi-layer (up to 12) circuit boards

• 1000 sqft electronics fabrication, assembly and test lab

• Modern high-quality test equipment, e.g. network analyzer, vector impedance meter, oscilloscopes...

• Alliance with MEI Technologies for development of advanced spacecraft power systems

• State of the art solid-state RF power generation with Nautel Ltd

200 kW solid-state RF

power installation with

supporting electronics

Both tube and solid state RF amplifiers

Solar Dynamics Observatory Courtesy: MEI Technologies/NASA

In-vacuum RF power (200

kW) networks, control and

sensor electronics


High Performance Plasma Sources

• Helicon plasma sources that efficiently produce

over 300 Amperes of directed ion current

• Variety of gases, hydrogen to xenon

Decades of experience in developing, building

and testing high power (more than 100 kW)

plasma sources with ion heating

VX-50, 50 kW

VX-100, 100 kW

VX-200, 200 kW

VX-CR,

12 kW

deuterium

argon


Space Trajectory Analysis

Jupiter Catapult

Mars Sample Return

Low-thrust lunar trajectory

in rotating reference frame

Ad Astra has performed mission analysis

studies with JSC using the NASA

Copernicus code


Plasma Modeling Ionosphere

Magnetic Field Line Connections

3 gauss

boundary

Field Strength

Interference

Plasma Jets

RF Sources

One or

more

magnet

coils

Capacitive RF drive

One or

more

magnet

coils

Capacitive RF drive

Plasma Reactors


Large Scale Mockups and Specialty Testing

Notional ISS Aurora Platform Mockup

Joint venture with CORAAL

and Costa Rica government

Zero-g testing

• Experience with building high fidelity mockups for large scale spaceflight projects

• Over 50 hours flight time with testing hardware in the NASA Zero-g aircraft


Ad Astra Technology Areas

Intense Plasma

Sources

Plasma

Measurements

Aerospace Manufacturing

Space Environment

Testing

Thermal

Engineering

Plasma Material

Testing

Engineering

Design

Physics-based Computer

Modeling

Electrical and RF

Power

Mission

Analysis

Cryogenics


Contact Information


USA

Jared P. Squire, Ph.D.

Sr. VP of Research

141 W. Bay Area Blvd

Webster, TX 77598

(281) 526-0500 main line

(281) 526-0514 office

[email protected]

or


Costa Rica

Jorge Oguilve-Araya

Operations Director

Located on Earth University Campus

10 km west of Liberia

Guanacaste, Costa Rica

011.506.2666.9272 main line

[email protected]

Documents

R&D Support Services - Ad Astra Rocket Company Astra Capabilities Dec 2011.pdf• Helicon plasma sources that efficiently produce over 300 Amperes of directed ion current • Variety