Categories: NASA

NASA has a Ballistic air gun to Hurl Rocks at Space Suits to Test Their Micrometeorite Protection

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.  

Ballistics Lab technical lead Mike Pereira sets up a drop test.
Credit – NASA

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.  

Those failure modes can be caused by more than just steel balls.  A different test rig shoots a piece of simulated moon rock (primarily made of basalt) vertically down onto the fabric.  Also, the fabric isn’t the only material that has to undergo such testing – other material that could be used on the exterior of habitats, or even material specifically designed to capture space debris, must also undergo similar violent testing.

Image of some of the basalt rocks used as projectiles in the tests.
Credit – NASA

Such testing will continue, using a combination of resources from the Glenn Research Center, where the physical lab is located, and Johnson Space Center, where the data is analyzed.  As maintaining a tight seal between the external void and the soft human inhabiting the suits and habitats of the Moon becomes more critical, violently testing the materials that make those seals out of does so as well.

Learn More:
NASA – Ballistic Air Guns and Mock Moon Rocks Aid in Search for Durable Space Fabrics
UT – Ballistic Trajectory
UT – Why Can’t We Design the Perfect Spacesuit?

Lead Image:
Image of the ballistics lab at NASA’s Glenn Research Center.
Credit – NASA

Andy Tomaswick

Recent Posts

Hubble and Webb are the Dream Team. Don't Break Them Up

Many people think of the James Webb Space Telescope as a sort of Hubble 2.…

4 hours ago

Scientists Have Figured out why Martian Soil is so Crusty

On November 26th, 2018, NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport (InSight)…

12 hours ago

Another Way to Extract Energy From Black Holes?

Black holes are incredible powerhouses, but they might generate even more energy thanks to an…

18 hours ago

Plastic Waste on our Beaches Now Visible from Space, Says New Study

According to the United Nations, the world produces about 430 million metric tons (267 U.S.…

1 day ago

Future Space Telescopes Could be Made From Thin Membranes, Unrolled in Space to Enormous Size

As we saw with JWST, it's difficult and expensive to launch large telescope apertures, relying…

2 days ago

Voyager 1 is Forced to Rely on its Low Power Radio

Voyager 1 was launched waaaaaay back in 1977. I would have been 4 years old…

2 days ago