Benefits and Impacts Obsolescence Reduction Risk Reduction Safety Improvement Cost Reduction Process Improvement Other

1. Aerogel Thermal Protection for Space Shuttle Area(s) of Significant Benefit Safety Performance Sustainability Operations Infrastructure • Technologies and Capabilities • JPL has unique experience with fabricating, flight testing and flying monolithic aerogel. • Flight qualified silica and opacified silica aerogel. • Presently investigating advanced aerogel insulation • NASA Ames has developed and tested advanced aerogel composite insulations. • Lab-scale characterization of thermal and structural properties of insulationarc-jet plasma testing of shuttle insulation • Aerogel (~25mg/cc) withstanding arc jet plasma simulating re-entry • Description • Aerogels are currently the lowest density and thermal conductive porous solids, and can be made in a wide range of compositions. • Proposal: Develop and test aerogel insulation to fill voids in shuttle wing to prevents/retards plasma burn- through during re-entry. • Flight qualified aerogel can provide a substantial and immediate improvement in shuttle safety • Begin shuttle retrofitting in two years. Benefits and Impacts Obsolescence Reduction Risk Reduction Safety Improvement Cost Reduction Process Improvement Other Operations Improvement Performance Enhancement • POC, Cost, Schedule and Maturity • TRL 4aerogel insulation • POC: Jeff Sakamoto, JPL (818) 393-6693 • Improved safety with minimum increase in mass • Reduction in Criticality 1 Failure Rate of 2.0%

2. Aerogel Thermal Protection for Space Shuttle • Total Project Costs: $ 83 M • Obsolescence & Feasibility: $ 1.2 M • Formulation: $ 6.8M • Implementation: $ 75 M • Project Submitted By: Jeff Sakamoto, Steve Jones and Jeff Snyder • Note: Supplemental Information attached in MS Word document