Monday  |  Salon 13  |  10:40 AM–11:00 AM

#15825, Hypervelocity Impact Investigations of Composite Truss Tubes for Orbit Service and Assembly Risk Assessment

The recent expansion of the on-orbit servicing and assembly (OSAM) field is being threatened by the increasing risk of micrometeoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) impact. To aid engineers in designing the next generation of satellites and space structures, the response of MMOD impact on these structures must be well-characterized to be better understood. At the same time, composite truss members are often used as the backbone and substructure for many in-space as-sembled structures, one being the In-Space Assembled Telescope (ISAT), and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Structures such as the ISAT rely on tri-truss systems constructed from composite truss members to support and create linkages between mirrors and modules. However, limited research has been conducted on the hypervelocity impact response of compo-site tubes nor on the residual strength of the member post-impact. Consequently, to aid hyper-velocity impact (HVI) damage prediction and the residual strength analysis of these structures, a unique two-stage light gas-gun was designed, fabricated, and built to impact composite truss members at a variety of velocities between 2 and 7 km/s. Post-impact analysis of the samples will help reinforce computational models in predicting localized damage to the composite truss tubes and will be used to help predict structure-wide modal response with reduced strength truss members.

Greyson Hodges   North Carolina State University
Joseph Morton   Colorado School of Mines
Leslie Lamberson   Colorado School of Mines
Mark Pankow   North Carolina State University