The Earth Entry System would include the orbiting sample inside a disk-shaped car with a heat shield for safe entry through the Earths environment. Credit: NASA/GSFC
A prospective hazard for any area objective, consisting of NASAs Mars Sample Return, is micrometeorites. These small rocks can travel as much as 50 miles per second (180,000 mph). At these severe speeds, “even dust could trigger damage to a spacecraft,” said Bruno Sarli, NASA engineer at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Sarli leads a team developing guards to protect NASAs Mars Earth Entry System from micrometeorites and space particles. To evaluate the groups shields and computer system designs, he just recently took a trip to a NASA lab, designed to securely recreate unsafe effects.
Set far away from locals and surrounded by dunes, the Remote Hypervelocity Test Laboratory at NASAs White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, has supported every human spaceflight program from the Space Shuttle to Artemis. The laboratory likewise supports screening for the International Space Station (ISS), Commercial Crew, and Commercial Resupply programs.
2-stage light gas guns are utilized by the lab to accelerate items to speeds up to 27,500 feet per second (18,750 miles per hour) that replicate micrometeorite and orbital debris impacts on spacecraft shielding. The 2nd stage utilizes extremely compressed hydrogen gas that presses gas into a smaller sized tube, increasing pressure in the weapon, like a car piston.
NASAs Remote Hypervelocity Test Laboratory is geared up with 4 2-stage light gas weapons; two 0.17-caliber (0.177-inch bore diameter), a 0.50-caliber (0.50 ″ bore diameter), and a 1-Inch (1.00 ″ bore diameter) weapon at the center. The 1-Inch variety is 160 feet long, from the gunpowder breech to the end of the target chamber exterior. Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center
Engineers spent 3 days getting ready for an experiment that lasted simply one 2nd. They utilized the laboratorys mid-sized high-pressure (50-caliber range) 2-stage light gas gun that shoots small pellets at speeds of 16,000 to 22,000 feet per second (11,000 to 15,000 mph). “At that speed, you might travel from San Francisco to New York in 5 minutes,” stated Dennis Garcia, the.50-caliber test conductor at White Sands.
While the pellets speed is exceptionally quickly, micrometeorites really take a trip 6 to 7 times quicker in area. As an outcome, the group depends on computer designs to simulate the real velocities of micrometeorites. The slower rate will check their computer models capability to replicate effects on their shield styles and permits the research team to study the material reaction to such energy.
This illustration shows a principle for numerous robotics that would collaborate to transport to Earth samples gathered from the Mars surface by NASAs Mars Perseverance rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mars Sample Return is a multi-mission campaign developed to retrieve clinically picked samples of rock and sediment that NASAs Perseverance rover is presently collecting on the surface area of the Red Planet. Goddard is currently developing and establishing the Capture, Containment, and Return System that would deliver the Mars sample tubes back to Earth.
A potential risk for any area objective, consisting of NASAs Mars Sample Return, is micrometeorites. At these extreme speeds, “even dust might trigger damage to a spacecraft,” said Bruno Sarli, NASA engineer at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Mars Sample Return is a multi-mission project developed to obtain clinically picked samples of rock and sediment that NASAs Perseverance rover is currently collecting on the surface area of the Red Planet. Bringing those samples to Earth would permit researchers to study them utilizing the most innovative laboratory instruments-those that will exist in the coming years and those in the years to follow. Goddard is presently creating and establishing the Capture, Containment, and Return System that would deliver the Mars sample tubes back to Earth.