Render of LOXSAT in space.
(Image credit: Eta Space)
A new NASA satellite will test critical technologies for storing and transferring super-chilled, cryogenic fuels in space in order to help astronauts reach the moon and potentially Mars someday.The Liquid Oxygen Flight demonstration (LOXSAT) will launch to orbit around the Earth later this year to test the fluid management capabilities that will be needed to maintain cryogenic fuels in microgravity, which come with additional challenges compared to other propellants. In a statement, NASA said these in-space propellant depots could some day be "essentially gas stations in space that could support long-term exploration."Cryogenic fuels must be managed with tight temperature controls to prevent them from boiling off, whether on Earth or in space. The same temperature conditions that make those liquids hard to store also make them hard to transfer, and the ability to do so between vehicles in space is a crucial step to unlocking missions to deep space, like those of NASA's Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon and other exploration efforts such as crewed missions to Mars.The mission is a collaboration with Eta Space of Rockledge, Florida, and NASA hopes the technology can evolve to support on-orbit fueling depots for spacecraft designed for long-term deep space objectives. It's central to the success of the agency's upcoming lunar goals, and part of a larger Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio Project involving scientists and engineers from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Glenn Research Center, and Kennedy Space Center (KSC).Eta Space was selected under NASA's Tipping Point initiative, which chose 14 companies to develop a variety of technologies to support the Artemis program's goal of sustained operations on the surface of the moon by 2030. Managing cryogenic fuels in space is a critical part of that architecture.Both Artemis lunar landers commissioned under NASA's Human Landing System contracts rely on cryogenic propellants, and require on-orbit refueling in order to complete their missions of landing astronauts on the lunar surface and delivering them back to lunar orbit.Both landers also use liquid oxygen as the oxidizer for their respective propellants. SpaceX's Starship is powered by a mixture of liquid oxygen and liquid methane (methalox). The other, Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander, is powered by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen (hydrolox) — both of which require constant cryogenic refrigeration to maintain their liquid state. Neither landers (or any other spacecraft, to date) have yet demonstrated how they will handle long-term storage of those super-chilled fuels, or the ability to transfer them between vehicles. That means LOXSAT may be the first.
