Marotta Controls Expands Hypersonic Device Portfolio with New Dual Pressure Controller for Rocket Engines

February 08, 2022

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Marotta Controls, a rapidly growing aerospace and defense supplier with a 65-year-plus heritage in spaceflight, announces the availability of its new Dual Pressure Controller (DPC) with embedded software for more efficient valve command and control. The universal controller can be used by any rocket engine operating within Earth’s atmosphere or outer space and is configured to withstand hypersonic vehicle internal environments. Marotta initially designed and developed the DPC for Stratolaunch’s Talon-A vehicle, a Mach 6-class vehicle designed to make hypersonic testing more routine.

“We relied on Marotta’s expertise to quickly create a pressure controller for the Talon-A propulsion system. The Marotta Controls development team was responsive and effective. The resulting DPC capabilities mitigate risk and simplify our vehicle management system,” said Brandon Wood, Hypersonics Program Director. “We look forward to continued ground tests and later flight tests of the DPC in our Talon-A hypersonic vehicles.”

The DPC is the first device of its kind developed by Marotta. Whereas similar incumbent solutions were typically built to individual vehicle specifications, Marotta’s design is applicable to any application requiring nuanced control of pressurized fuel and oxidizer delivery and can easily adjust to various customer requirements. The controller supports up to four CoRe® solenoid valves in a small, lightweight form factor.

“The DPC combines our legacy knowledge in flow control valves with our growing experience in the field of embedded electronic system development. Our collaboration with Stratolaunch was key to us successfully developing an optimized design,” said Max Wolfinger, Vice President, Space Systems, Marotta Controls. “There’s an increasing desire in the defense and aerospace industries to offload design and development of components that can be and, essentially, should be self-contained for safety and performance reasons. This practice speeds time to market for missile systems, aircraft, spacecraft, and other rocket-engine-based vehicles and is a driver behind Marotta Controls developing quality solutions suitable for mass production.”

The DPC’s key features and capabilities remove risk and variability from the pressure control function while simplifying hardware management, and include:

• Easy, flexible pressure limit setting
• Dynamic system pressure monitoring
• Rapid fault handling
• Quicker valve open/close
• Low power consumption
• Flight computer integration

Tested in house by Marotta for performance and reliability in hypersonic use cases, the device meets IPC-610 Class 3 standards for defense and space applications. Further, the company’s application support team is available to help customers ensure sufficient communication between the DPC and vehicle flight computers.

Source : Marotta Controls, Inc.