John DunkanichNASA’s Space Transportation Systems Capability Leader; He spoke about the contracting approaches used with various vendors to support development work on cryogenic fluid management systems, and how such mechanisms will allow the space agency to develop such technology from other companies, according to a Tuesday report in SpaceNews. They talked about how they are hindering their ability to access the data they need to understand how things work on the platform.
Cryogenic fluid management systems are designed to support propellant storage and transportation in space and are a critical component of lunar landers and other spacecraft.
“I want to be able to test different configurations. The issue we have is the different procurement mechanisms that we have used in our industry partnerships,” Dankanich said at an event on Monday.
“There is a major challenge in obtaining the telemetry and data needed for model validation without placing data constraints on the overall system design and performance,” he added.
Dankanich said companies are developing cryogenic fluid management systems through NASA’s Human Landing System program and the Tipping Point award.
He noted that the Tipping Point Award, implemented as a space law agreement, limits how space agencies can access data and manage work on cryogenic fluid management technology development projects.