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Marshall Space Flight Center's Impact Testing Facility CapabilitiesMarshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC) Impact Testing Facility (ITF) serves as an important installation for space and missile related materials science research. The ITF was established and began its research in spacecraft debris shielding in the early 1960s, then played a major role in the International Space Station debris shield development. As NASA became more interested in launch debris and in-flight impact concerns, the ITF grew to include research in a variety of impact genres. Collaborative partnerships with the DoD led to a wider range of impact capabilities being relocated to MSFC as a result of the closure of Particle Impact Facilities in Santa Barbara, California, The Particle Impact Facility had a 30 year history in providing evaluations of aerospace materials and components during flights through rain, ice, and solid particle environments at subsonic through hypersonic velocities. The facility's unique capabilities were deemed a 'National Asset' by the DoD, The ITF now has capabilities including environmental, ballistic, and hypervelocity impact testing utilizing an array of air, powder, and two-stage light gas guns to accommodate a variety of projectile and target types and sizes. Relocated test equipment was dated and in need of upgrade. Numerous upgrades including new instrumentation, triggering circuitry, high speed photography, and optimized sabot designs have been implemented. Other recent research has included rain drop demise characterization tests to obtain data for inclusion in on-going model development. Future ITF improvements will be focused on continued instrumentation and performance enhancements. These enhancements will allow further, more in-depth, characterization of rain drop demise characterization and evaluation of ice crystal impact. Performance enhancements also include increasing the upper velocity limit of the current environmental guns to allow direct environmental simulation for missile components. The current and proposed ITF capabilities range from rain to micrometeoroids allowing the widest test parameter range possible for materials investigations in support of space, atmospheric, and ground environments. These test capabilities including hydrometeor, single/multi-particle, ballistic gas guns, exploding wire gun, and light gas guns combined with Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics Code (SPHC) simulations represent the widest range of impact test capabilities in the country.
Document ID
20080031060
Acquisition Source
Marshall Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Evans, Steve
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Finchum, Andy
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Hubbs, Whitney
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Gray, Perry
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
April 28, 2008
Subject Category
Ground Support Systems And Facilities (Space)
Meeting Information
Meeting: 12th DoD Electromagnetic Windows Symposium
Location: Alabama
Country: United States
Start Date: April 28, 2008
End Date: May 1, 2008
Sponsors: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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