NASA ballistic air gun hurls rocks at space suits to test their micrometeorite protection
Thursday, 23 September 2021 12:32
Shock testing is commonly used throughout engineering to determine how a product will do when impacted by something. That something could be anything from the ground to a cruise missile. Like so much else in space exploration, engineers at NASA are performing the same type of test, just scaled up. Instead of simply dropping the object under test, as is common in most settings, they shoot it with a steel ball going 3000 ft/second.
Researchers at the Ballistics Impact Lab use a 40-foot-long gun to simulate what it would be like to be hit by a micrometeorite in space. Recently, the team has focused on testing different types of fabric for use in space suits. A rapid decompression from a micrometeorite strike anywhere on a suit would be fatal to any astronaut unlucky enough to suffer one.
Understanding how a piece of fabric would fail in such a situation is critical to improving its design. Some forms of failure are worse than others. The lab has a series of high-speed cameras and sensors surrounding the material under test to ensure it can capture as much data about those failure modes as possible.
Rocket Lab to launch Astroscale inspection satellite
Thursday, 23 September 2021 11:02
Rocket Lab will launch an Astroscale mission to rendezvous with a spent rocket stage in low Earth orbit, a prelude to eventually deorbiting the stage.
Xplore receives $2M contract from NSIC to accelerate Xcraft Platform Development
Thursday, 23 September 2021 07:35
Raymond describes Space Force achievements, plans, challenges ahead
Thursday, 23 September 2021 07:35
Delta-X helps with disaster response in wake of Hurricane Ida
Thursday, 23 September 2021 07:35
US Space Force to take over SATCOM operations from Army, Navy
Thursday, 23 September 2021 07:35
Glasgow Prestwick Spaceport announces Launch Partner
Thursday, 23 September 2021 07:35
CSO unveils Guardian Ideal, Space Force values at AFA
Thursday, 23 September 2021 07:35
US Space Force Commander claims Russia has armed satellite in orbit
Thursday, 23 September 2021 07:35
Dashcam detective work leads to recovery of space rocks from fireball over Slovenia
Thursday, 23 September 2021 07:35
Exploring quantum gravity-for whom the pendulum swings
Thursday, 23 September 2021 07:35
Kendall presents unsparing blueprint for confronting China and other threats
Thursday, 23 September 2021 07:35
NASA awards Orion Main Engine contract for future Artemis missions
Thursday, 23 September 2021 07:35
Court filing outlines Blue Origin’s case against NASA SpaceX lunar lander award
Wednesday, 22 September 2021 23:35
Blue Origin is seeking to overturn NASA’s award of a lunar lander contract to SpaceX by arguing that SpaceX’s proposal failed to meet requirements for reviews that made it “unawardable.”
Exo-Space pivots to meet demand for on-orbit processing
Wednesday, 22 September 2021 22:25
Exo-Space, a Los Angeles startup formed in 2020 to offer inexpensive easy-to-assemble cubesats, has pivoted in response to growing demand for on-orbit data processing.