Mission accomplished

Your neighbor may have it in his new sports car. It may be in your desktop PC. NASA uses it to lubricate space-going mechanisms such as bearings, momentum wheels, boom/array deployment mechanisms, and payload gimbals. It's also used to lubricate hard drives and magnetic disks.

This revolutionary product is Pennzane(R) X2000 synthesized hydrocarbon fluid developed by Pennzoil-Quaker State, Houston, TX. Last year, the company introduced Pennzoil Synthetic, a new line of full synthetic motor oils formulated with Pennzoil(R) The fluid is the result of Pennzoil's decade-long investment in the research, development, and testing of synthetic lubricants that meet the extreme conditions found in space.

The Road to Outer Space

In the mid-1980s, scientists and engineers at Pennzoil's Woodlands Technology Center began basic research on a sophisticated family of synthetic lubricants. "I was interested in making new synthetic fluids, and the manufacturing division needed to upgrade a byproduct stream," explained Dr. Clifford Venier, one of the developers of Pennzane. "The stream contained significant quantities of cyclopentadiene, a very unusual chemical. It's a hydrocarbon, yet it's a weak acid, so it easily undergoes condensation reactions to make bigger molecules."

Scientists take fairly small, ordinary molecules and string them together to make bigger molecules, according to Venier. "That's how the main commercial synthetic fluids - the polyalphaolefins - are made. So it looked like a good place to start. We got started looking at some reactions that put other hydrocarbon groups on the cyclopentadiene," said Venier.

"It's a very small molecule, with only five carbons, and quite volatile. We put up to six groups on it to make it heavier and less volatile. We made a whole series of these, called multiply-- alkylated cyclopentanes, or MACS, that can be used for any kind of lubrication application." One of those MACS became X2000.

Pennzane was conceived, developed, and produced in only two years. But even after small batches were produced, the developers -- Venier and fellow scientist Dr. Edward Casserly -- weren't sure of its commercial potential. That is, until Pennzoil participated in a conference in 1985 in which members of the aerospace community identified a need for a lubricant that would be stable under extreme temperatures and provide excellent lubricating qualities.

The aerospace experts needed a lubricant that was a fluid at a very low temperature, yet would not evaporate at a high temperature. "In the catalogue of things we'd done," said Venier, "there was this one that looked like it had those kinds of properties." Those properties included the ability to lubricate parts in vacuum conditions in the cold of outer space for up to 25 years.

Once the idea for Pennzane was developed, Venier and Casserly began creating small quantities in the lab. "When developing a new product, we have to go in and run the reactions and purify it," Venier explained. "Typically, to screen a new material, we would make only a few hundred grams. From that, we could get the properties and determine if it will be useful."

As far as Pennzane was concerned, Pennzoil could "make it once and have enough for a long time," said Venier. "One of the advantages Pennzane had for initial commercialization is that it's a very high value product. The material sells for about $1,000 per kilogram or $450 per pound. Part of the reason for that is the small vol

ume required. You don't have to build a plant to process it. You can start out small."

Pennzane X2000 may have started out small, but in 1986, it was presented to NASA contractors as a developmental fluid for application in space. The initial review was favorable, and Pennzane was on its way toward commercialization.

Its original commercial use was in 1987, when Pennzane was shipped to NASA contractor TRW (Redondo Beach, CA), which began using it in a variety of applications for equipment deployed in outer space. It was used in the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument, the most precisely calibrated radiometer ever to fly in space. CERES measures emitted and reflected energy from the surface of the Earth and the atmosphere. CERES provides scientists with the most accurate eye ever for measuring clouds and their impact on Earth's radiant energy system. NASA has assigned CERES the highest priority in its Earth Observing System (EOS) program.

Today, Pennzane is used to lubricate mechanisms in the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite; the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), which provide 60 percent of the Earth's weather reports and track distress signals to locate stranded sailors; and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), which performed climate research such as improving precipitation measurement techniques and developing representative rainfall climatologies.

It Really is Rocket Science

The resulting commercial motor oil, Pennzoil Synthetic with Pennzane, provides extra engine protection against deposits and wear resulting from severe driving conditions. It provides this protection when engines need it most, such as at temperature extremes. While not subjected to the severe temperature fluctuations of outer space, the oil protects cars at very low and very high operating temperatures.