NASA Plum Brook's B-2 test facility - Thermal vacuum and propellant test facility

Abstract

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center (GRC) Plum Brook Station (PBS) Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility, commonly referred to as B-2, is NASA's third largest thermal vacuum facility. It is the largest designed to store and transfer large quantities of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, and is perfectly suited to support developmental testing of upper stage chemical propulsion systems as well as fully integrated stages. The facility is also capable of providing thermal-vacuum simulation services to support testing of large lightweight structures, Cryogenic Fluid Management (CFM) systems, electric propulsion test programs, and other In-Space propulsion programs. A recently completed integrated system test demonstrated the refurbished thermal vacuum capabilities of the facility. The test used the modernized data acquisition and control system to monitor the facility. The heat sink provided a uniform temperature environment of approximately 77K. The modernized infrared lamp array produced a nominal heat flux of 1.4 kW/m 2. With the lamp array and heat sink operating simultaneously, the thermal systems produced a heat flux pattern simulating radiation to space on one surface and solar exposure on the other surface. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.