Moran Innovation 2021 Highlights

NASA KSC LC39B New Liquid Hydrogen Dewar Tank (left: under construction in 2020, right: near completion in 2021)

• Hydrogen Systems Development: Past, Present and Future. Seminar presentation to LTA Research on the evolution of hydrogen systems in aerospace along with present day state-of-the-art technologies and future hydrogen systems. A publicly available abstract and version of the presentation package can be found here.
• Densified and No-Loss (Zero Boil-off) Liquid Hydrogen Systems. An overview of these systems along with safety considerations and proven mitigations presented at the Center for Hydrogen Safety Asia-Pacific Conference 2021. The abstract, video and presentations slides can be found here.
• Liquid Hydrogen Drones and Microgrids. US Air Force funded project to demonstrate extended duration drones and integrated hydrogen energy storage for base operations under subcontract to NEOEx Systems. A $10 million earmark from the 2022 US federal defense appropriation budget will support further development of liquid hydrogen refueling systems.
• Lunar Human Landing System (HLS). Support to NASA under subcontract to HX5 as a subject matter expert in cryogenic fluid management for the SpaceX HLS development of the first commercial human lander that will safely carry astronauts to the lunar surface.
• Long Term Liquid Hydrogen Storage. Support to NASA under subcontract to HX5 for the Lockheed Martin Tipping Point testing of more than a dozen cryogenic fluid management technologies, positioning them for infusion into future space systems.
• Orbital Cryogenic Propellant Transfer. Support to NASA under subcontract to HX5 for the SpaceX Tipping Point large-scale flight demonstration to transfer cryogenic propellant, specifically liquid oxygen, between tanks on a Starship vehicle.
• New design tools and training courses. Several new software tools for liquid hydrogen systems and cryogenic fluid management were created in 2021. Training courses on these topic areas are also under development and planned for rollout in 2022.
• Lunar ice mining concept. "Down Under Excavation and Transport (DUET) Lunar Mining System (LuMiS)", Free J., Cannard S., Sciortino J., Rhatigan J., Haberbusch M., Moran M. Submitted to the NASA Break the Ice Challenge and presented at the 2021 Lunar Surface Science Workshop.
• Other news. See the Moran Innovation website and blog at LH2era.com for more in depth information and news on hydrogen, propulsion, and power systems.

Matt Moran is the Managing Member at Moran Innovation LLC, and previous Managing Partner at Isotherm Energy. He's been developing power and propulsion systems for more than 40 years; and first-of-a-kind liquid, slush and gaseous hydrogen systems since the mid-1980s. Matt was also the Sector Manager for Energy & Materials in his last position at NASA where he worked for 31 years. He's been a cofounder in seven technology based start-ups; and provided R&D and engineering support to many industrial, government and research organizations. Matt has three patents and more than 50 publications including the Cryogenic Fluid Management report series. More about him can be found here.