A potential hazard for any space mission, including NASA’s Mars Sample Return, is micrometeorites. These tiny rocks can travel up to 50 miles per second (180,000 mph). At these extreme speeds, 'even dust could cause damage to a spacecraft,' said Bruno Sarli, NASA engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Fli
are used by the lab to accelerate objects to speeds up to 27,500 feet per second that simulate micrometeorite and orbital debris impacts on spacecraft shielding. The first stage uses gunpowder as a propellent the way a standard gun does. The second stage uses highly compressed hydrogen gas that pushes gas into a smaller tube, increasing pressure in the gun, like a car piston. The gun’s pressure gets so high that it would level the building if it were to explode.
NASA’s Remote Hypervelocity Test Laboratory is equipped with four 2-stage light gas guns; two 0.17-caliber , a 0.50-caliber , and a 1-Inch gun at the facility. The 1-Inch range is 160 feet long, from the gunpowder breech to the end of the target chamber outside. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Engineers spent three days preparing for an experiment that lasted just one second. They used the lab’s mid-sized high-pressure 2-stage light gas gun that shoots small pellets at speeds of 16,000 to 22,000 feet per second . “At that speed, you could travel from San Francisco to New York in five minutes,” said Dennis Garcia, the .50-caliber test conductor at White Sands.
While the pellet’s speed is incredibly fast, micrometeorites actually travel six to seven times faster in space. As a result, the team relies on computer models to simulate the actual velocities of micrometeorites. The slower rate will test their computer model’s ability to simulate impacts on their shield designs and allows the research team to study the material reaction to such energy.
This illustration shows a concept for multiple robots that would team up to ferry to Earth samples collected from the Mars surface by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechSample Return is a multi-mission campaign designed to retrieve scientifically selected samples of rock and sediment thatis currently collecting on the surface of the Red Planet.
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