ROCKLEDGE, FL — December 11, 2017 — Mainstream Engineering Corporation, the manufacturer of QwikProducts, is a 31-year-old US manufacturer with a history of leading-edge research and development of innovative HVAC/R products. They have been awarded a contract from NASA to develop the compressor and related components for a High Lift Heat Pump.
NASA has identified a need for higher heat rejection temperatures due to an equatorial lunar mission profile, where surface temperatures reach 260F. To meet this need for space exploration vehicles to reject waste heat to high temperature environments, Mainstream has adapted the oil-less refrigeration compressor they developed and currently being used on the International Space Station (ISS). Mainstream’s current oil-less compressor technology is gravity-insensitive, has a long operating life, can be scaled to match various heat loads, and has been mission-proven on the ISS. This effort will extend this compressor technology to allow operation at extremely high temperatures and high lifts.