AMA has been awarded the $43 million five-year Entry Systems Technology Research and Development contract by NASA Ames Research Center (ARC). ESTRAD supports research and technology development in order to meet evolving NASA mission objectives. Read the ESTRAD Source Selection Statement here.

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ESTRAD Program Manager

Mr. Dave Cornelius

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The primary objective of the ESTRAD contract is to support the Entry Systems and Technology Division at NASA Ames Research Center. Work requirements include the development of technologies for use in the design and fabrication of prototype vehicles that travel at hypervelocities in the atmosphere of Earth and other bodies in the solar system, including access to Earth orbit and reentry, sustained high-altitude hypersonic flight, planetary entry, and high altitude aerocapture.

Divisions / Branches supported include:

1. Entry Systems and Technology Division office (TS)

2. Aerothermodynamics Branch (TSA)

3. Thermal Protection Materials Branch (TSM)

4. Entry Systems and Vehicle Development Branch (TSS)

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Scope areas include:

• ​Systems engineering

• Research and analysis

• Design and development

• Testing

• Computer modeling

• Technical writing

• Facility management and operations

• Support for third party quality system

• Administrative support

• Computer system administration

• Organize and facilitate technical meetings and invitational travel for outside researchers

• Fabrication and fabrication support, necessary to complete projects

• Project Management

 

Technical areas include:

• Chemistry and physics of hypersonic, chemically reacting, and radiating flows

• Aerothermodynamic analysis of reentering spacecraft

• Development and modification of computational fluid dynamics tools and their development

• Aeronautics and space vehicle trajectory analysis

• Materials science of ablative, reusable and multi-functional thermal protection materials

• Experiment planning, execution, and analysis for high-enthalpy testing of materials and real-gas phenomena

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Facilities and labs include:

• Electric Arc-driven Shock Tube (EAST)

• Ballistic range complex

• Arc jet complex

• Ceramics lab

• Materials development lab

• Materials characterization lab

• Ultra high temperature ceramics lab