John Dankanich, in-space transportation system capability lead at NASA, spoke about contracting approaches used with various vendors to support development work on cryogenic fluid management systems and how such mechanisms hinder the space agency’s ability to access data needed to understand how such technologies work with other platforms, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.
Cryogenic fluid management systems are designed to support in-space propellant storage and transfer and are a key component of lunar landers and other space vehicles.
“We want to be able to test different configurations. The issue that we have is the different procurement mechanisms that we’ve been using with our industry partnerships,” Dankanich said at an event Monday.
“We have a real challenge getting telemetry and the data that we want for model validation without having data restrictions on the overall system design and performance,” he added.
According to Dankanich, companies are developing cryogenic fluid management systems either through NASA’s Human Landing System program or Tipping Point awards.
He noted that Tipping Point awards that are being carried out as Space Act Agreements restrict how the agency can access data and manage work on cryogenic fluid management tech development projects.
