MicroMeteoroid and Orbital Debris Detection

MICROMETEOROID AND ORBITAL

DEBRIS DETECTION

ClientAlan Cassell at NASA AMES

Faculty AdvisorJay McCormack

MentorGreg Swanson

Team MembersMatt Arnone, Nick Harris, Matt Hinkelman, Jay Hirata, Matt Mihelish, Alex Swanson

2

Broken Space Shuttle Endeavor tile

•Electronic Hit Indicator (EHI) testing•Micro Meteoroid and Orbital Debris (MMOD) impact testing•Test fixture•High speed data acquisition•Graphical User Interface (GUI)•Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulation

Orion Space Capsule

Project Description

Photo from NASA.gov

Photo from NASA.govColumbia 2003

3

EHI Sensor

Current takes the path of least resistance

4

Potential Integration Points - Forebody TPS - Backshell TPS - Service Module Extension

5

Specifications and Deliverables Test Fixture

Hold and EHI at a specified distance from the material being tested

Support for testing different configurations of thermal protection systems and EHI’s

Easily and quickly mount to the 17 caliber gun at the White Sands Test Facility

Hardware High speed (> 1MHz) 128 trace sensor size Plug and play

Software Display impact data

in a meaningful way Save data for future

analysis

6

Test Fixture Design

7

Test Fixture Design Cont.

Aluminum Collars

Electronic Hit Indicators (EHI)

Steel Back Plate

Thermal Protection System (TPS)

Sheet Metal Backing

Steel Support Rods

Aluminum Clamping Plates

Service Module Extension

8

Service Module Extension

9

Finite Element Analysis: Impact Simulation

10

To achieve the velocity necessary to simulate an MMOD impact, a 17 caliber 2-stage light gas gun is used. With this gun, the projectile is capable of reaching a velocity of 7 km/s using a 3.4 mm projectile.

Test Layout

11

Data Acquisition System

12

Design Choices Processing

FPGAMicrocontroller

GUIWeb BasedWindows/Linux

Data StorageOn-BoardStreaming

Data TransferUSBRS-232Ethernet

13

Design Process

14

Simulation

15

The Board

16

Software

17

Final Product

18

Results

19

Results Cont.

20

Results Cont.

21

Lessons Learned Carbon fiber process PCB layout can be difficult The EHI sensor is a promising and

viable technology

22