REPEATABILITY AND UNCERTAINTY ANALYSES OF LIGHT GAS GUN TEST DATA

All large spacecraft are susceptible to high-speed impacts by meteoroi ds and pieces of orbiting space debris which can damage flight-critica l systems and in turn lead to catastrophic failure. One way to obtain information on the response of a structure to a meteoroid impact or an orbital debris impact is to simulate the impact conditions of interes t in the laboratory and analyze the resulting damage to a target struc ture. As part of the Phase B and C/D development activities for the Sp ace Station Freedom, 950 impact tests were performed using the NASA/Ma rshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) light gas gun from 1985-1991. This p aper presents the results of impact phenomena repeatability and data u ncertainty studies performed using the information obtained from those tests. The results of these studies can be used to assess the utility of individual current and future NASA/MSFC impact test results in the design of long-duration spacecraft.