WSU researchers have used the ancient Japanese art of paper folding to possibly solve a key challenge for outer space travel – how to store and move fuel to rocket engines.
WSU researchers have used the ancient Japanese art of paper folding to possibly solve a key challenge for outer space travel – how to store and move fuel to rocket engines.
The researchers have developed an origami-inspired, folded plastic fuel bladder that doesn’t crack at super cold temperatures and could someday be used to store and pump fuel. Led by graduate student Kjell Westra and Jake Leachman, associate professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, the researchers have published their work in the journal, Cryogenics.
The challenge of fuels management has been an important limiting factor in space travel, largely restricting space travel to either shorter trips for large amounts of cargo or to small satellites for long duration missions. In the early days of the U.S. space program in the 1960s and 1970s, researchers tried to develop round balloons to store and pump liquid hydrogen fuel. They failed. Every bladder would shatter or leak as they tried to squeeze it at the required very cold temperatures for the liquid fuels. The heartiest designs only lasted five cycles. The researchers abandoned the effort and instead came to rely on less ideal propellant management devices. Current systems use metal plates and the principle of surface tension to manage liquid fuels, but the systems are slow and can only dribble out fuels in small quantities, so the size of fuel tanks and missions are limited.
“Folks have been trying to make bags for rocket fuel for a long time,” Leachman said. “We currently don’t do large, long-duration trips because we can’t store fuel long enough in space.”
Read more at Washington State University
Image: The researchers have developed an origami-inspired, folded plastic fuel bladder that doesn't crack at super cold temperatures and could someday be used to store and pump fuel. (Credit: WSU)
