Location

Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel, Columbia/ Enterprise Rooms

Start Date

27-4-1994 1:00 PM

End Date

27-4-1994 4:00 PM

Description

Orbiter vehicles are routinely exposed to a variety of small scale debris while operating in low earth orbit. Impacts with such debris often result in surface and/or subsurface damage to orbiter windows. Current procedures require windows to be manually inspected for impact damage after each shuttle mission.

Once identified, surface damage feature depths are determined by analyzing mold impressions of the damaged areas. Subsurface damage always results in window rejection since the depths of subsurface features are deemed "unmeasurable" using standard mold impression measurement techniques.

This paper presents an automated optical technique for measuring the depth of small scale surface and subsurface damage features in orbiter windows. Test results based on actual orbiter window damage features are also presented.

Comments

Non-Commercial Utilization

Session Chairman: Richard L. Horner, Program Director, Satellite and Space Defense Systems, Rockwell Space Systems Division

Session Organizer: Chris Cook, EG&G, Kennedy Space Center

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Apr 27th, 1:00 PM Apr 27th, 4:00 PM

Paper Session II-B - 3-Dimensional Feature Mapping Using Spatial Spectral Analysis

Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel, Columbia/ Enterprise Rooms

Orbiter vehicles are routinely exposed to a variety of small scale debris while operating in low earth orbit. Impacts with such debris often result in surface and/or subsurface damage to orbiter windows. Current procedures require windows to be manually inspected for impact damage after each shuttle mission.

Once identified, surface damage feature depths are determined by analyzing mold impressions of the damaged areas. Subsurface damage always results in window rejection since the depths of subsurface features are deemed "unmeasurable" using standard mold impression measurement techniques.

This paper presents an automated optical technique for measuring the depth of small scale surface and subsurface damage features in orbiter windows. Test results based on actual orbiter window damage features are also presented.

 

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