NASA testing durability of Aircraft. A spacecraft at a specialized research center in NASA New Mexico is undergoing a durability test. Called White Sands, the facility is home to a massive vacuum gun. These tests are intended to test the spacecraft’s durability for future missions, allowing NASA to place objects the size of micrometeorites in different materials to test how durable they are when impacted.
The tests are part of NASA’s move to complete the Mars sample return in the upcoming years. This multi-mission campaign will focus on traveling to Mars by collecting samples from NASA’s Perseverance rover and returning them to Earth for study. The vacuum gun is a 2 stage light gas gun that allows NASA to propel small pellets at 16 to 22 feet per second.
At speed, you could fly from San Francisco to New York in about five minutes, according to NASA. Of course, visible in space. Micrometeorites travel much faster than this. Often they travel six to seven times faster. NASA informed that. They also happened to travel very fast.
This is where NASA’s vacuum gun, which previously caused irreversible damage to James Webb, comes into play. This powerful gun basically allows NASA to fire pellets at various materials. They test layers of this material to see how durable it is against things like micro meteorites.
The Mars sample return campaign is very special and ambitious. NASA plans to use a vacuum gun to build a spacecraft designed for it that can survive the journey. The information gathered from these tests will help the space agency in future unmanned missions to Mars. Also very useful for creating. If you want to see the vacuum you can watch it on NASA’s YouTube channel.
Read: NASA’s Perseverance rover captivating new revelation
