Slideshow: How NASA drives automotive
technology—Part I
Carolyn Mathas - August 21, 2014
Yep, NASA gave us Tang. For those who are old enough to remember drinking it—we were excited
about the concept of drinking what the astronauts drank, even though the Tang had much to be
desired. What may not be as well known as Tang, however, is that from deep space to the
automotive space, NASA technology greatly impacts automotive design and development, and has
for decades.
Here are several automotive parts and pieces, as well as developments that are ancillary to the
automotive industry, that you might not know came from space research and travel.
Just a few years ago, NASA’s Glenn Research Center announced nanotechnology development
specifically to replace or enhance silicon-based solutions. The research aimed at achieving highspeed, high-computing power, and low-voltage and current level operation. One of the results is in
the area of nanoscale electronic switches that offer durability, longer lasting circuits and
computational capabilities at specific locations. The circuits are used for sensing systems, wireless
and embedded communications, active matrix LED displays, antennas, and radio frequency
identification (RFID) devices.
Automotive applications for the nanotechnologies include localized electronic sensing and
computational abilities in engines, tires and windows; self-monitoring and diagnostics for emissions
and fuel consumption, data storage circuits and communications embedded into vehicle surfaces and
finally, smart key and safety device technology.
NASA claims that its technology breaks through MEMS-based and solid-state challenges, claiming
lower power, higher performance, greater miniaturization. No moving parts means that reliability
increases and mechanically robust automotive electronics have a higher mean time between failures
(MTBF).
In a fairly recent nanotechnology roadmap published by NASA, One of the areas that will have a
major impact on the automotive industry is the development of nanostructured materials that are
50% lighter than conventional materials—but with equivalent or superior properties. Carbon
nanotube derived from high strength, low density carbon fibers and light-weight, high strength and
durability nanoporous polymers and hybrid materials will enable the development of advanced
composites that reduce the weight of aircraft and spacecraft (and eventually cars?) by up to 30%.
Technical challenges include low-cost yet reliable manufacturing to produce nanomaterials in
sufficient quantities, studies of the resulting materials to enable their efficient use in future vehicles.
Carbon nanomaterials, and their weight advantage, are ideal for space and automotive solutions.
Stirling Engline Project
The Stirling Engine—A good and early hybrid solution
Also coming out of the NASA Glenn Research Center was the high efficiency, long life, low mass
Stirling Engine for low power. The research has pumped out many prototype iterations since 2005.
Applications of the Stirling engine initially concentrated outside of the automotive segment, as it was
through that the engine’s power/weight ratio was too low, the cost was too high, and the starting
time was too long. Some of the downsides of the Stirling for automotive was that the cooler would
need to reject 2x the heat as a Diesel engine or Otto engine radiator, and that the heater would need
to be made of ceramic, stainless steel or another allow to support the high temperatures and to
contain hydrogen gas that would be used to maximize power. The challenges, therefore, included:
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Startup time
Shutdown time
Weight
Acceleration response
Challenges were met by using concepts from a patented internal-combustion engine with a sidewall
combustion chamber to overcome the deficient power-density and specific-power problems and slow
acceleration-response. Automobiles powered by Stirling engines were developed in test projects by
NASA, and American Motors (AMC) with cars equipped with units from United Stirling in Sweden
that were built under a license from Philips. The NASA vehicle test projects were designed by
contractors and were designated MOD I and MOD II.
NASA's Stirling MOD 1 just never made it based on efficiency. The MOD II project in 1986, however,
produced a highly efficient automotive engine that reached a peak thermal efficiency of 38.5%,
compared to a modern spark-ignition gasoline engine peak efficiency of 20-25%. The Mod II project
replaced the normal spark-ignition engine in a 1985 4-door Chevy Celebrity. 1986 MOD II Design
Report results showed that gas mileage (hwy) was increased from 40 to 58 mpg with a city range of
26–33 mpg- with no change in vehicle gross weight. Startup time in the NASA vehicle was a
maximum of 30 seconds.
In a hybrid, the Stirling engine faced fewer challenges and a prototype hybrid car was built in 2007
by the Precer project in Swede, using a solid biofuel and a Stirling engine. The car was able to go
approximately 60 miles on a single charge of a lithium battery.
A low-temperature-difference Stirling engine, shown here, runs on the heat from a warm hand. If
automotive applications were this simple, the project might still be around.
Success, however, was stymied with funding cutbacks combied with lack of interest by auto
manufacturers, and commercialization hopes for the Automotive Stirling Engine Program ended.
Microshutters
NASA MEMS Microshutter Technology
This image shows a close-up view of the next-generation microshutter array during the fabrication
process. The technology advances an already groundbreaking multi-object observing technique.
Image Credit: NASA/Bill Hrybyk
Harvey Moseley, principal investigator and NASA scientist from the Goddard Space Flight Center
has successfully demonstrated that electrostatically actuated microshutter arrays are on functional
par with today’s magnetically activated arrays. By removing the large magnet and substantially
reducing the voltage involved in actuating the microshutter array, the solution enhances the
instrument's observing efficiencies, allowing scientists to gather spectral data on 100 objects at a
time, vastly increasing the observatory's productivity. When NASA launches the Webb telescope in
2018, it will represent a first for multi-object spectroscopy.
One of the first things the team did was eliminate the magnet that sweeps over the shutter arrays to
activate them, and replaced it with electrostatic actuation. As with all mechanical parts, the magnet
takes up space, adds weight, and is prone to mechanical failure. Perhaps more important, the
magnet cannot be easily scaled up in size without creating significant fabrication challenges,
limiting the size of the instrument's field of view. Magnetic actuation also takes longer. With the
Webb telescope, the magnet must first sweep over the array to open all the shutters before voltages
are selectively applied to open or close specific shutters.
By applying an alternating-current voltage to electrodes placed on the front of the microshutters, the
shutters swing open. To latch the desired shutters, a direct-current voltage is applied to electrodes
on the backside. Only the needed shutters are opened; the rest remain closed. This reduction in
cycles should allow a 100x extended lifetime of the microshutter array. And, because the magnet no
longer dictates the size of the array, its elimination will allow scientists to assemble much larger
arrays for instruments whose fields of view are 50 times larger than what existed.
Just as significant is the voltage needed. When the effort first began, the team only could open and
close the shutters with 1000 V. By last year, the team had achieved a major milestone by activating
the shutters with just 30 V.
Goddard engineers Lance Oh is one of several technologists developing a next-generation
microshutter array technology originally developed for the James Webb Space Telescope. Image
Credit: NASA/Bill Hrybyk
Although spectroscopy is the obvious beneficiary of the technology's advance—here is where the
automotive application comes in as it is applicable to lidar instruments. A now, the technology relies
on a large computerized switch box -- a heavy device unsuitable for spaceflight missions. Plans are
to incorporate an integrated circuit that drives the switching functions. Placed next to the shutters,
it will take up only a fraction of the space. Spinning
Spinning Off
Photo: NASA
NASA's Fermi gamma ray space telescope has landed scientists a big and unprecedented catch — a
neutron star spinning 390 times per second. NASA’s done some pretty serious spinning itself as we
see in just a few of the NASA spinoffs that directly or indirectly impacted the automotive industry.
We may hate to drive on them, but safety grooving in concrete increases traction. First developed at
the Langley Research Center to reduce aircraft accidents on wet runways, industry expanded into
highway and pedestrian apps.
Skidding was reduced, stopping distance decreased, and the cornering ability of a vehicle increased.
The technology spinoff occurred in 1985.
Where the rubber meets the road
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company developed fibrous material, five times stronger than steel, for
NASA to use in parachute shrouds to soft-land the Vikings on the Martian surface. The chain-like
molecular structure gave it incredible strength in proportion to its weight.
Goodyear then expanded upon the technology and produced a radial tire with an expected tread life
10,000 miles greater than conventional radials. The technology spinoff was in 1976.
In the 1990s NASA needed a smaller camera to send into space to record images of planets, moons,
asteroids and other objects. Miniaturizing a camera would allow NASA to build a smaller, faster and
cheaper space craft. NASA is famous for its clear images of space; a smaller camera would have to
deliver that same image quality. Eric Fossum and his team at the Jet Propulsion Lab, invented the
“camera on a chip,” a miniature imaging system that fits a large amount of data, electronics and
analog-to-digital converters on just a small piece of silicon.
The camera-on-a-chip was at the heart of all small-imaging systems, and was rapidly
commercialized.
In the mid-1990s Fossum few other team members from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory acquired the
licensing rights for the camera and formed a new company, Photobit. At first, Photobit’s technology
was used for automotive applications, such as headlight dimmers, and medical technologies, such as
the swallowable pill camera, and then it was marketed as a cellphone camera. The company has
evolved—and is now known as Aptina.
Since 1973, when NASA began officially recording these so-called “spinoffs,” they have documented
more than 1,750 items created—that’s impressive.
Mind Meld…
NASA and auto manufacturers have several of the same issues—the vehicles are the difference, and
the environment where they’ll run. Let’s see where there have been several technology trade
between the two industries/
As early as 1995, Chrysler worked with the Marshall Space Flight Center on the use of space
shuttle-based insulation materials in its open-cockpit racecar—the Patriot Mark II.
The hybrid car replaced the standard lead-acid battery with a carbon-composite flywheel energy
storage system, converting latent electric energy to rotational energy.
After the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Federal Office Building, Lifeshear, a
pyrotechnic-based cutting tool, cut through such debris as concrete, piping, electrical conduit, and
reinforced bar. The tool, developed by NASA, Hi-Shear Technology Corp. and the city of Torrance,
CA, operates on NASA-developed pyrotechnics called initiators.
Originally used to sever automotive brake and clutch pedals, using it in Oklahoma City prompted
FEMA to order 36 cutters which are still used by Urban Search and Rescue groups across America.
Wow, that’s hot!
Stock car driving is hot—both in and out of the vehicle. Temperatures in a racecar cockpit reach
160°. Boeing North America and BSR Products, use space shuttle Thermal Protection System (TPS)
material to insulate racecars. The insulation is used under the driver's seat, between the floor pan
and exhaust system on the driver's side, under the driver's feet, and for insulating the oil tank, the
ignition system, and the side of the transmission tunnel.
The result is temperature reductions of up to 90°. That’s cool.
Ever wonder where synthetic motor oil came from?
Pennzoil-Quaker State began basic research on a family of synthetic lubricants in the mid-1980s that
resulted in Pennzoil Synthetic with Pennzane, commercial synthetic motor oil. The basis of the
product, Pennzane X2000 synthesized hydrocarbon fluid, was the result of a decade-long research
and development project to produce synthetic lubricants that meet space conditions.
Its first commercial use was in 1987 when Pennzane was shipped to NASA contractor TRW. It was
used for equipment deployed in outer space. Crashes
Crashes
We’ve all seen crash-test photos, almost all of which occur in a controlled lab. Few of these crashes
today actually crash a real nuts-and-bolts vehicle. At a price tag of $400,000/each, instrumented
crash prototypes are a bit over the top in cost. NASA’s Structure Analysis Program (NASTRAN), in
comparison, is a general-purpose predictive tool that is used in many applications, including
automotive.
Analysis types include:
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Concentrated loads
Distributed loads
Thermal expansion
Dynamic response to transient loads, steady state sinusoidal loads, and to random excitation.
Approximately 3,000 copies of NASTRAN have been sold. Ford Motor Company's Advanced Vehicle
Engineering and Technology group credit computer modeling with reducing the number of
prototypes Ford has had to build in recent years by as much as a third.
If it’s good enough to be used to model Disney World's Space Mountain ride, chances are it’ll work
just fine on your next car.
Robots
Robots and Automotive
The automotive world is replete with robots and, for several years, NASA and General Motors are
jointly working on the next generation of robots for automotive and aerospace apps. At Houston’s
Johnson Space Center engineers are building humanoid robots that work in tandem with people.
NASA, GM and Oceaneering Space Systems developed and built the next iteration of Robonaut.
Robonaut 2, or R2 technologically advanced robot that uses its hands to do work beyond the scope of
prior humanoid machines.
NASA and General Motors continue to accelerate development of the next generation of robots and
related technologies for use in the automotive and aerospace industries.
Dexterous, human-like robots use their hands to do intricate work whether next to people, or in a
hazardous environment where risks are too high for humans to work, the robots expand on vision
and control. GM played a vital role in the development of the Lunar Rover Vehicle, the first vehicle
to be used on the moon. Patching in Space
Oh oh, how can we patch this?
After the nose cone of the ISS was damaged during flight, NASA worked with industry to create a
sealant to repair damage.
Just two tubes of NOAX, aka “good goo,” flew on all 22 flights following the Columbia accident,
available to repair damage that occurred on the shuttle’s exterior thermal protection system. Several
Space Centers were part of the development of the product, which was actually invented by Alliant
Techsystems Inc. (ATK). ATK contracted with Starfire Systems, Inc., a manufacturer of polymer-t-ceramic technology to supply the unique polymer material called SMP-10 that was incorporated into
NOAX.
When SMP-10 is heated above 1,500 °F it converts over to ceramic, which takes much higher
temperatures, so that it would seal during the shuttle’s re-entry. Starfire then developed StarPCS for
high temperature earth-bound applications. The StarPCS family of products provides benefits for
heat management in the military, aerospace, aviation, and automotive markets.
Domestic and foreign auto manufacturers are testing StarPCS for passenger vehicles since it runs
hotter and requires less cooling than metallic counterparts. It also offers weight saving and
performance handling benefits
A formula incorporating the polymer is now being used in test platforms for a new exhaust
management design for Formula 1 race cars.
To be continued….
When I set out to create this slideshow, I thought I’d have a total of 20 photos that I wanted to
include. Somehow, I’ve ended up with twice that number, hence a Part II will be posted shortly.
Hope you enjoy both!