156 results about "Space Shuttle" patented technology

An aerospace hardware derelict item is salvaged in space, modified, and reused to provide manned facilities in orbit. The hardware packages added onto the salvaged discarded item enhances its value, and incorporates at least the subsystems required to effectively reuse portions of previously discarded launch vehicle components, and other derelict objects in space. The hardware, and technique used reduces the cost of launching comparable hardware to orbit, because of the reuse, and provides a human habitation in orbit. The salvaged items include the external tank of the space shuttle, other derelict orbital hardware, the add-on cargo pod in two forms, and the ability to convert the derelict into a cost effective reusable item. The salvaged hardware is initially capable of contributing mass, length, interior volume, strongback, rotational stability mass, interior pressurized volumes, artificial gravity, and stability with the addition of simple subsystems for salvage, and interior development packages.

An automated parking garage. The garage comprises a multi-floor building having a plurality of vehicle storage racks in a storage area for storing a loaded pallet or an unloaded pallet. An entrance-level floor of the building includes an entry/exit station (EES) on for receiving a vehicle, the EES having an exterior entrance through which the vehicle is driven and, an opposing interior entrance that provides access to the storage area and through which the loaded pallet is transported, the loaded pallet and unloaded pallet adapted to be positioned at floor level in the EES. The garage includes a pallet stacking station for storing the unloaded pallet, the pallet stacking station located over a shuttle aisle that extends under the EES. A pallet shuttle that traverses the shuttle aisle to a first position under the EES for handling the unloaded pallet in the EES, and to a second position under the pallet stacking station for stacking the unloaded pallet. The garage also includes a transport system for transporting the loaded pallet in the storage area.

This invention relates to the design of a Modular Aerospace Plane (MAP) comprising a forward fuselage section, a main wing section, a tail section and wing attachments. Various sections can be integrated to offer a variety of aircraft characteristics, performance and missions. This modular design offers a new method of aircraft fabrication, maintenance, repair and ground handling to reduce costs for the manufacturers, owners and operators. The forward fuselage and tail sections may utilize a parachute device whereby these sections can separate in an emergency and safely lower the occupants to the ground.

The invention discloses a high-temperature high heat flow simulator for spacecraft vacuum heat tests in a space environment simulating chamber. The simulator mainly comprises infrared light arrays, a high-temperature insulation component unit, moving units, a temperature measuring unit and a temperature controlling unit. A plurality of infrared lights in the infrared light arrays are provided with reflective screens, the infrared lights are arrayed and combined to form the infrared light arrays according to requirements of heat flux density and uniformity, baffles surround the periphery of the infrared light arrays, high-temperature multi-layer insulation components are mounted among the infrared lights, a mounting baseplate and the baffles, and a high temperature region is limited in region formed through specimen irradiated face and the infrared light array high-temperature insulation components. According to the high-temperature high heat flow simulator, by means of unique design of the infrared light arrays and the high-temperature insulation components, technical difficulties of high-temperature high heat flow simulation when vacuum heat tests are performed on a spacecraft are solved, high-temperature high heat flow space environment can be simulated when vacuum heat tests are performed on spacecrafts in series of deep space exploration and space shuttles, and the spacecrafts can be tested.

A cryogenic fuel tank adapted for attachment to an aerospace vehicle includes an exterior layer of reinforced composite insulating foam. The insulating foam is reinforced with an aramid fiber mesh or a closed cell foam may be reinforced with one or more of carbon nanotubes, graphite whiskers, silicon carbide fibers or graphite fibers. The improved composite insulating structure disclosed herein provides a remedy for insulating material breaking off the large external fuel tank attached to the space shuttle during launch and ascent into space.

The invention relates to a high-strength glass fiber which has an excellent mechanical property and a product of the glass fiber. The high-strength glass fiber can serve as an ideal enhancing base material of a high-performance composite material and is applied widely in the fields of windmill blades, space shuttles and the like, which have high requirements for the specific strength and the specific elasticity modulus. The system is characterized in that calcinated aluminum oxide serves as on of the raw materials, impurities in glass compositions are reduced, the diathermancy of molten glass is improved, the energy consumption is reduced, and the stability of glass fiber drawing operation is improved greatly. The glass fiber with the compositions is required to be produced by direct drawing on a specific tank furnace, the electric boosting input energy of the tank furnace accounts for more than 20% of the total energy input, and more than 60% of the electric boosting energy is applied to raw material melting areas. The fiber mainly comprises 56-65 wt.% of SiO2, 18.5-25.8 wt.% of Al2O3, 11.5-23.0 wt.% of RO (RO is sum of CaO, MgO, SrO and BaO), 0.1-1.0 wt.% of CeO2 and 0.1-0.8 wt.% of Li2O.

The invention relates to a method for preparing heat insulation tiles of a shuttle, which is mainly used in heat insulation of shuttles and aircraft heat insulation protecting field such as other aerospace, aviation, guided missile and the like, belonging to the special technical field. The method comprises the steps of matrix batching, shaping, sintering and implementing coating, and the matrix batching is prepared from the following components by weight percent: 50-95% of fused quartz glass fiber, 5-50% of alumina fiber, 0-5% of boron nitride and 0-3% of matrix assistant. The heat insulation tile in the invention has the advantages of high-temperature resistance, high strength, low density, low heat conduction and fine heat insulation effect.

The invention discloses a preparation method of fibrous nano silicon carbide. The preparation method is characterized by comprising the following steps: taking a carbon source and chrysotile asbestos of which the main chemical ingredient is silicon dioxide according to the molar ratio of carbon to silicon dioxide being (0.3-3):1; separately grinding the carbon source and chrysotile asbestos, evenly mixing to obtain a mixture; putting the mixture into a reaction device, vacuumizing, and continuously introducing argon in the reaction device; heating to 1350-2500 DEG C and carrying out thermal reaction for 0.2-6 hours; cooling to room temperature, stopping introduction of argon; collecting the reduction product, and grinding into fine powder which is the fibrous nano silicon carbide powder product. The preparation method has the advantages that raw materials are easily availably and equipment and technology are simple; moreover, the preparation method is friendly to environment and high in productivity. The prepared fibrous nano silicon carbide has good performances, can be widely applied to high-tech equipments such as nose cones of space shuttles, brakes of airplanes and racing bicycles, rocket nozzles, satellite antennas, guided missiles and the like, and also has broad use in nanometer microsystems.

A novel materials technology has been developed and demonstrated for providing a high modulus composite material for use to 1000 DEG F. and above. This material can be produced at 5-20% of the cost of refractory materials, and has higher structural properties. This technology successfully resolves the problem of "thermal shock" or "ply lift," which limits traditional high temperature laminates (such as graphite/polyimide and graphite/phenolic) to temperatures of 550-650 DEG F. in thicker (0.25'' and above) laminates. The technology disclosed herein is an enabling technology for the nose for the External Tank (ET) of the Space Shuttle, and has been shown to be capable of withstanding the severe environments encountered by the nose cone through wind tunnel testing, high temperature subcomponent testing, and full scale structural, dynamic, acoustic, and damage tolerance testing.

A multi-mode propulsion system for potential application to hypersonic and aerospace planes. The system can employ various propulsion modes at various points in time, with the propulsion system employed at a given point in time being selected according to the velocity of the inlet airflow. In one embodiment, the propulsion system of the present invention has an ejector-augmented pulsed detonation rocket propulsion mode, a pulsed normal detonation wave engine mode, a steady oblique detonation wave engine mode, and a pure pulsed detonation rocket mode.

The present invention relates to robot technology. The miniature creeping vehicle includes main mechanism, control system and power supply. The main mechanism includes front vehicle body, shape memory alloy driver, elastic rod, back vehicle body, wheel self-locking mechanism and front and back wheels. The shape memory alloy driver is connected to the front vehicle body and the back vehicle body via guide pulley and constitutes parallel mechanism with the elastic rod. The present invention has great pace length, can move inside an irregular curved pipe and provides cheap and convenient solution for the inspection and maintenance of miniature pipeline in nuclear power station, space shuttle, etc.

The invention discloses a laser radar used for rendezvous and docking between space spacecraft. Under the action of a control signal sent by an information processing unit, a laser radar host unit scans and detects an optical reflection unit by emitting pulsed laser light, and The detection data signal is returned to the information processing unit; the optical reflection unit reflects the pulsed laser for scanning and detection; the information processing unit sends a control signal to the laser radar host unit; the target spacecraft is captured according to the detection data signal returned by the laser radar host unit, and is transmitted through the laser The radar host unit tracks the captured target spacecraft. The invention realizes the scanning, capture and stable tracking of the target spacecraft with a long distance of 0.8m to 20km and a large field of view of 80°×105°, and the accuracy of scanning measurement can reach 0.05°, effectively ensuring the rendezvous and docking stage of the two spaceflights. Attitude control between devices to complete the rendezvous and docking task.

An aerospace plane having an elongate body supporting a pair of wings each having at least two angled, trailing edge portions. The pair of wings are adapted to extend away from the elongated body in opposing directions. A landing gear assembly is operatively associated with the elongated body to be moveable from a retracted position where the landing gear assembly is substantially locatable within the elongated body and an extended position where the landing gear assembly extends at least partially away from the elongated body. At least one engine adapted to generate thrust. At least one stabilizer adapted to assist with movement of the aerospace plane during flight. The at least one engine is located at least partially within an intake housing adapted to direct air into said at least one engine. The intake housing having at least one inlet door adapted to move from a fully open position, which allows air to pass into the engine, to a sealingly closed position which prevents air from flowing into the engine, when the engine is shut down during flight.

A boosting launcher of rocket for increasing the effective load of rocket is composed of launching frame and rocket. Its booster consists of the fixed pulley on the top of launching frame, steel cables and counterweights which can vertically drop downwards or slide downwards along a slope. Said steel cable is connected with the counter weight at its one end and with the top of rocket in detachable mode by its other end. Its advantages are simple structure and high boosting effect.

A magnetic suspension energy-storage flywheel system being a energy-storage device for spacecrafts mainly consists of an axial mixed magnetic bearing, a protection bearing, a radial/axial integrated displacement transducer, a rotor of high-strength composite material, a motor/generator, a radial mixed magnetic bearing, a casing, a mounting shaft and a lock nut. The motor/generator and the mounting shaft is in the middle of the flywheel, and outward are the radial mixed magnetic bearing, the radial/axial integrated displacement transducer, the protection bearing, the axial mixed magnetic bearing and the lock nut in order. The rotor of the high-strength composite material lies outside of the radial mixed magnetic bearing. The integral system is sealed in the casing.

A multilevel vertical general aviation hangar, comprising a traffic inflow/outflow path and a pallet stack subsystem. There is also a pallet turntable located with the path. A pallet shuttle moves the pallet and contained vehicle from the turntable to a lift. The lift moves the pallet and vehicle to a predetermined location within a storage structure.

The invention belongs to the field of robots, and discloses a multifunctional in-orbit maintenance robot system. The system comprises a free flight robot platform, a mechanical arm and a plurality ofend effector systems, wherein a plurality of holes are formed in the free flight robot platform; the mechanical arm comprises two capture arms and an elbow joint, each capture arm comprises a rotary degree-of-freedom joint, a first connection joint, a deflection degree-of-freedom joint, a second connection joint, a pitching degree-of-freedom joint and arm rods, and the rotary degree-of-freedom joint, the first connection joint, the deflection degree-of-freedom joint, the second connection joint, the pitching degree-of-freedom joint and the elbow joint are all of a two-section type rotating rodstructure; and each section of rod piece of the elbow joint is connected with the other end of one arm rod. According to the system, travalling positioning of the mechanical arm can be realized, theworking orientation of the mechanical arm can be expanded, and the mechanical arm can be mounted on a spacecraft, an astronautic aircraft, a space station, a satellite and other space aircrafts as a standard device for in-orbit maintenance.

The invention relates to a device for testing the flow of a lubricating oil nozzle of an engine, belonging to the technical field of space shuttle engines. The device comprises an oil receiving cup, a first switching pipe, a second switching pipe, a third switching pipe, a working room, an oil return tank, an oil collecting pipe, a two-position three-way electromagnetic valve, an oil metering cup, a first electromagnetic valve, a second electromagnetic valve, an oil return pump, an oil supply pump and a combined oil tank, wherein the combined oil tank comprises an oil collector, a vacuum oil tank, a consumption oil tank, a third electromagnetic valve, a fourth electromagnetic valve and a vacuum pump. With the structure of a vacuum combined split oil tank, the device can remove air dissolved in lubricating oil. An upper and a lower split oil tanks are used, wherein the lower oil tank is used for supplying oil, and the upper vacuum oil tank is used for removing the dissolved air. For the compatibility of different types of nozzles, the designed oil receiving cup can flex and rotate according to different oil receiving distances and angles, can be used for testing different types of nozzles and reduce the labor intensity of workers.