ILC Dover LP was awarded a 5-year IDIQ contract for advanced development of airbag landing attenuation systems for Earth entry capsules by NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA. ILC developed and built the landing airbags for Mars Pathfinder, Spirit, and Opportunity rovers and also has been building NASA EVA spacesuits for the shuttle and ISS for the past 30 years.
NASA Langley has tasked ILC to develop airbag design concepts for the CEV and to perform system analysis and modeling using LS DYNA to simulate dynamic CEV landing situations. ILC’s landing system conceptual designs will be used by NASA to establish detailed mass breakdowns and to identify areas of technological risk for each concept that may require early advanced development to ensure timely infusion into the CEV project schedule.
The contract includes options for fabrication, system development, and demonstration tests at Langley’s impact test facility in Hampton, Virginia. The contract is capped at $2 million dollars.
