Outpost Technologies Corporation (“Outpost”) has been awarded a NASA contract that will support the development of GasPak, a low mass, clean gas generator, engineered to optimize the functionality of NASA Langley’s hypersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerators (HIAD). This NASA contract compliments the demonstration of GasPak on Outpost's “Mission 2”, a NASA-funded orbital Outpost mission set to launch in the fall of 2023.
GasPak steps in to address the limitations faced by current deployable aerodynamic decelerators, which are restricted by their associated blowdown systems. Traditional systems are challenged with issues such as mass efficiency and the long-term storage of high-pressure gas. While hydrogen offers an ideal storage solution, its high leak rates make it problematic for long-duration missions and space transits. GasPak, however, emerges as a more robust and efficient solution, providing a low mass, clean gas generator solution. It surpasses the constraints of cryogenic liquid hydrogen, offering a high-density alternative and thus, overcoming the barriers that have so far prevented such technology from being space-qualified.
NASA first developed their revolutionary HIAD to provide more options for planetary missions by allowing spacecraft to carry larger, heavier payloads and survive the harsh conditions of atmospheric re-entry. The HIAD technology will enable a variety of proposed NASA missions to destinations such as Mars, Venus, Titan, and the gas giants.
Through a Space Act Agreement with NASA Langley, Outpost aims to use HIAD technology as part of their two-stage re-entry system for their Earth return satellites. The development of GasPak is a step forward on Outpost’s technical roadmap to provide customers with a reliable system that will deliver their payloads to space, operate them to support the customer’s needs, and then return that customer payload back to Earth with precision landing.
GasPak will be demonstrated on Outpost's “Mission 2”, a NASA-funded orbital Outpost mission set to launch on SpaceX's Transporter-9. This will be the second flight for Outpost, following the launch of their “Mission 1” hosted payload satellite after an impressive 7-month development and build. Mission 1 was a testament to Outpost’s fail-fast philosophy and a first-principles approach, which enables reaching a minimum viable product as quickly as possible. Outpost plans to iterate and improve their platform for their commercially-funded Mission 2.