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Advanced Life Support
Conservation and recycling of air and water are crucial to the successful construction and operation of the International Space Station. Therefore, ITP is working to develop a method to recycle wastewater with minimal power consumption and maximium efficiency.
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Packed Bed Reactor Experiment
The PBRE project focuses on managing liquid and gas requirements for future space missions using small, passive systems that are able to operate over a wide range of inlet qualities.
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Flight Testing of Ullage Orientation
As liquid fueled rocket engines operate, the ullage produces a bubble(s) that grow in volume as fuel is consumed. In order to maximize expulsion efficency for liquid fuel rockets, it is necessary to determine the behavior of the liquid fuel and ullage under low gravity conditions. Currently advaced computational models exsist to predict the behavior of the liquid fuel and ullage under boost or acceleration conditions; however these models have not been validated under weightless or near weightless conditions.
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Flywheel Energy Storage Device
The flywheel energy storage device being developed by Dr. Polazola, Texas A&M Mechanical Engineering Dept. will be tested in conditions that replicate both the accelerations and vacuum conditions encountered in spaceflight. In order to simulate these conditions, the flywheel will be tested in a large vacuum chamber developed by the ITP research group, and flown on NASA's reduced gravity research aircraft.
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Propellant Transfer
ITP is interested in developing models for a pressure based propellant transfer by studying fluid transfer between an empty and full cryogenic tank.
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Thermal Systems
ITP is currently studying the use of a heat pipe to recondition thermoelectric material as well as developing technologies for using the vortex phase separator as a direct contact heat exchanger. Experiments aboard the aircraft have proven the separator can be utilized in this area of thermal hydraulics.
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