Glenn Research Center

As NASA's Center of Excellence in turbomachinery, Glenn Research Center, located in Cleveland, Ohio, is responsible for developing technologies applicable to fans, pumps, compressors, turbines, and air-breathing propulsion needed to propel NASA into the next century. Additional research activities in power generation, propulsion, and communications make Glenn a very busy place these days. With support roles in aviation safety, the International Space Station, microgravity research, and advanced space transportation, Glenn has a hand in practically all of NASA's research and development activities.

A recent breakthrough at Glenn in power generation systems may find its way to the Space Station. In March 2000, researchers at Glenn in collaboration with industry partners, announced that they had achieved full-speed operation at 60,000 revolutions per minute of a flywheel energy storage system. This achievement, the highest speed ever demonstrated for a flywheel spun on magnetic bearings, makes flywheel technology a viable candidate for replacing chemical batteries on the Space Station. Flywheel energy sources have a longer life expectancy than chemical batteries, are more efficient, provide more power, and operate over a wider temperature range.

Flywheel technology offers an alternative energy source with the potential to replace chemical batteries.

Glenn's propulsion research, in cooperation with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was recognized with Discover's Award for Technology Innovation in 1999 for the ion propulsion system used on Deep Space 1. The award went to NASA's Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR) program team, a partnership formed in the early 1990s between JPL and Glenn. Test results from research on Glenn-built xenon ion engines for use on deep space missions were used to refine the design for the flight hardware for Deep Space 1. Ion drives provide 10 times more thrust per pound of fuel than liquid or solid fuel engines. Researchers believe ion engines will open the door to future deep space and Earth-orbiting missions that are otherwise impractical or too costly using conventional propulsion methods.

While looking to advance space flight, researchers at Glenn are never far removed from working on ways to make aviation safer. Glenn's newest addition is its ballistic impact test facility. The facility features a 40-foot-long gas gun that ejects projectiles at speeds in excess of 1000 miles per hour and a high-speed camera that can capture 2.5 million images per second. The facility's main task will be to test the ability of new, lighter airplane engine housings to withstand high-speed impacts with hail or birds that can occur during flight and damage the engine or, worse, cause the engine to separate from the wing of the airplane. Similar research over the last 20 years at Glenn contributed to proving the worth of ballistic materials used today in jet engines as well as in bulletproof vests.

In addition to making aircraft safer, Glenn researchers are exploring new technologies to design advanced turbine engines. To achieve these state-of-the-art engines, Glenn has performed research in a variety of disciplines, including new high-temperature materials, coating and lubrication systems, flow physics and heat transfer, and combustion physics.

Other research activity at Glenn has taken on a unique perspective. As part of its efforts under the turbomachinery and combustion technology program, Glenn has been working on a "smart green engine," with the principal aim of developing technologies to minimize all environmentally harmful engine emissions, such as nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, aerosols, and particulates. A key to accomplishing the program's goals is the creation of low-fuel-burn, low-emissions flight. Currently Glenn is pursuing a number of technologies to attain this goal, including magnetic bearing suspension, active combustion controls, computational fluid dynamics tools and models, and coolant flow management.

The year 2000 marks the completion of Glenn's seven years of technology verification experiments for the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS). ACTS explored the possibility of using the previously untapped high frequency Ka-band technology for satellite communications. The goal was to relieve orbital crowding and demonstrate a wide-band frequency capable of carrying simultaneous services at optical fiber rates. After 81 months of operation, far in excess of the intended 24-month mission, the knowledge gained from ACTS achieved remarkable milestones with 103 experiments, paving the way for the next generation of communications satellites. Launched in 1993, ACTS has been yet another step in Glenn's long history of developing advanced communications technology.

Data captured from a turbine shows the deformation that occurs when a blade is out.

Glenn is also active in researching new materials for use in a wide array of applications from heavy industry to space missions. Last December, some of Glenn's knowledge in material design was taken up to the Hubble Space Telescope during the last servicing mission. Following a previous servicing mission, NASA scientists became aware of cracks in Hubble's multilayer insulation blankets, which protect equipment from temperature extremes when the telescope moves in and out of Earth's shadow. A review board of Glenn and Goddard Space Flight engineers evaluated 100 potential replacement materials by subjecting them to space environmental simulations equivalent to 10 years in low Earth orbit. The team selected the same material as before, but with modifications to retard crack growth and help keep the outer layer in place even as it becomes brittle. The new blanket material was added to Hubble and is expected to last for the remaining life of the mission, until 2010.

The research at Glenn exemplifies the diversity of NASA's knowledge and interests. In the not too distant future, the results of the work at Glenn will open new worlds and possibilities for space missions and travel, enhance communication systems, and improve the quality and safety of terrestrial aviation.