The innovative testbed features variable flow capability and a 20-second continuous burn duration, offering a cost-effective and quick-turnaround solution for conducting hot-fire tests on advanced nozzles, rocket engine hardware, composite materials, and propellants.
Solid rocket propulsion remains a competitive and reliable technology for various applications, including compact and heavy-lift rockets and in-space missions. It offers low propulsion element mass, high energy density, resilience in extreme environments, and reliable performance.
"It's time consuming and costly to put a new solid rocket motor through its paces - identifying how materials perform in extreme temperatures and under severe structural and dynamic loads," said Benjamin Davis, branch chief of the Solid Propulsion and Pyrotechnic Devices Branch of Marshall's Engineering Directorate. "In today's fast-paced, competitive environment, we wanted to find a way to condense that schedule. The hybrid testbed offers an exciting, low-cost solution."
Launched in 2020, the project was part of NASA's initiative to develop new composite materials, additively manufactured nozzles, and other components with broad benefits across the spacefaring spectrum.
After assessing future industry needs and receiving feedback from aerospace partners, the Marshall team recognized that the existing 24-inch rocket motor testbed could be prohibitively expensive for small startups. Additionally, conventional six-inch test motors lacked flexibility and required multiple tests to meet all objectives. Thus, the need for an efficient, versatile alternative became clear.
"The 11-inch hybrid motor testbed offers the instrumentation, configurability, and cost-efficiency our government, industry, and academic partners need," said Chloe Bower, subscale solid rocket motor manufacturing lead at Marshall. "It can accomplish multiple test objectives simultaneously - including different nozzle configurations, new instrumentation or internal insulation, and various propellants or flight environments."
"That quicker pace can reduce test time from months to weeks or days," said Precious Mitchell, solid propulsion design lead for the project.
A notable feature is the on/off switch. "That's one of the big advantages to a hybrid testbed," Mitchell explained. "With a solid propulsion system, once it's ignited, it will burn until the fuel is spent. But because there's no oxidizer in hybrid fuel, we can simply turn it off at any point if we see anomalies or need to fine-tune a test element, yielding more accurate test results that precisely meet customer needs."
The team plans to deliver final test data to NASA leadership later this summer. For now, Davis commends the Marshall propulsion designers, analysts, chemists, materials engineers, safety personnel, and test engineers who collaborated on the new testbed.
"We're not just supporting the aerospace industry in broad terms," he said. "We're also giving young NASA engineers a chance to get their hands dirty in a practical test environment solving problems. This work helps educate new generations who will carry on NASA's mission in the decades to come."
For nearly 65 years, Marshall teams have led the development of the U.S. space program's most powerful rocket engines and spacecraft, from the Apollo-era Saturn V rocket and the space shuttle to today's cutting-edge propulsion systems, including NASA's newest rocket, the Space Launch System. NASA technology testbeds designed and built by Marshall engineers and their partners have shaped the reliable technologies of spaceflight and continue to enable discovery, testing, and certification of advanced rocket engine materials and manufacturing techniques.
Related Links
NASA Marshall capabilities
Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com
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