Client Alan Cassell at NASA AMES Faculty Advisor Jay McCormack Mentor Greg Swanson Team Members Matt Arnone, Nick Harris, Matt Hinkelman, Jay Hirata, Matt Mihelish, Alex Swanson

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 2 Photo from NASA.gov Columbia 2003

EHI Sensor 3 Current takes the path of least resistance

Potential Integration Points 4 - Forebody TPS - Backshell TPS - Service Module Extension

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 5

Test Fixture Design 6

Test Fixture Design Cont. 7 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

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Finite Element Analysis: Impact Simulation 9

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 10

Data Acquisition System 11

Design Choices  Processing FPGA Microcontroller  GUI Web Based Windows/Linux  Data Storage On-Board Streaming  Data Transfer USB RS-232 Ethernet 12

Design Process 13

Simulation 14

The Board 15

Software 16

Final Product 17

Results 18

Results Cont. 19

Results Cont. 20

Lessons Learned  Carbon fiber process  PCB layout can be difficult  The EHI sensor is a promising and viable technology 21

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