Title:

New Frontier of Thermal Transport Challenges, Systems & Opportunities in Planetary Science & Space Exploration

Speaker:

Dr. Terry J. Hendricks

Affiliation:

NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory -Propulsion, Thermal, and Materials Systems

When:

Thursday, March 4, 2021 at 4:00:00 PM   Add to Calendar

Where:

Love Building, Room https://gatech.bluejeans.com/845066166

Host:

Dr. Satish Kumar
satish.kumar@me.gatech.edu

Abstract

Spacecraft thermal and power technologies surround our daily lives. Piezoelectrics in our shoes; heat pipes in our computers; thermoelectrics in the ground, automobiles, and spacecraft; radar sensors in our automobiles; and solar photovoltaics and thermal systems to power our homes and industries are prevalent as never before. Advanced thermal, thermoelectric, Stirling cycle, and other energy conversion technologies like solar technologies have key benefits and strengths in many terrestrial, space, and military energy recovery applications, such as potential modularity, high reliability, and solid state performance requiring little or no operational maintenance. There are now new frontiers in advanced thermal and power technologies, leveraging off past advances and demonstrations that will lead us to the next generation opportunities and visions. This seminar will present and discuss latest thermal fluid power research and developments in ice penetration probes to explore the thick ice layers and ice ocean interfaces on Europa and Enceladus; Lunar systems to enable our return to the Moon; aircraft energy recovery; two-phase pumped loop systems for small spacecraft exploration to all edges of our solar system; and thermoelectric system economics that provide new cost driven thermal and TE system design paradigms emanating from comprehensive integrated cost-performance analyses in energy-recovery power systems. These new frontiers span the extreme spectrum of temperature from 100 K in Europa ice layers to 950 K in high temperature power systems; extreme pressures from vacuum conditions of deep space to 54 MPa at Europa ice-ocean interfaces; and sunlight to extreme darkness and isolation of deep space. This seminar presentation will examine current and potential future use of these thermal and power technologies and systems for proposed NASA deep-space missions to the Moon, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Europa, Titan, and Enceladus and beyond, and potentially transitioning to Earth based applications in automotive, industrial, and aircraft. It will present some of the detailed design challenges of these extreme space environments and current design approaches envisioned. These technologies demonstrate how NASA driven technology development is flowing down to a wide spectrum of Earth based power and thermal system applications in energy recovery systems and aircraft electrification.

Biography

Dr. Hendricks is currently a Project Manager, ASME Fellow, and IEEE Senior Member in the Propulsion, Thermal and Material Systems group at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/ California Institute of Technology, responsible for managing and guiding projects in spacecraft solar power systems, radioisotope power systems, thermal management and thermal energy storage systems critical to NASA missions. Among his numerous awards, he was recently inducted into the University of Texas at Austin Mechanical Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni. He also has been nominated for the Eni 2020 Energy Frontiers Award in Rome/Milan, Italy for his innovative work in terrestrial energy recovery. During Dr. Hendricks tenure at JPL, he was the Project Manager on complex, multi-disciplinary projects to: 1. develop Aircraft Electrification Thermal Management solutions; 2. develop Solar Array Dust Mitigation technologies; 3. develop thermal and thermoelectric power system designs for unmanned aircraft engine energy recovery applicable to different UAV platforms, and 4. characterize and quantify pyroshock-driven dynamic effects on Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator power output, thereby reducing risk on Mars 2020 spacecraft. Prior to JPL, he was the Energy Recovery Program Director at Battelle Memorial Institute and Senior Program Manager at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he managed DOE and Army projects in hybrid power system development, automotive and industrial waste energy recovery, military energy recovery, and advanced heat transfer. He received his Ph.D. and Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He has over 40 years of professional expertise in thermal & fluid systems, energy recovery, energy conversion and storage systems, terrestrial & spacecraft power systems, micro electro-mechanical systems, and project management. His extensive expertise is embodied in 3 book chapters published by Taylor and Francis and Elsevier; and over 90 reports, conference papers, and journal. Dr. Hendricks holds 9 patents and is a Registered Professional Engineer in California and Texas.

Notes

Seminar Link: https://gatech.bluejeans.com/845066166 Phone Dial-in +1.408.419.1715 Meeting ID: 845 066 166 Moderator: Satish Kumar (satish.kumar@me.gatech.edu)