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Keith L. Gordon

Publications and source records attributed to Keith L. Gordon.

11 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2023

Protective Coatings for Lunar Dust Tolerance

Materials capable of withstanding the harsh lunar environment are critically needed to support long duration, sustainable missions on the Moon’s surface. Lunar dust significantly threatens the durability and reusability of components and vehicles due to possessing a fine, jagged morphology and highly abrasive nature. These characteristics result in the particles eroding, adhering and/or embedding onto component surfaces and into device confined geometries (e.g., gear housing, interlocking systems, etc.) potentially leading to premature failure. The aim of this study is to identify and characterize wear-resistant commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) materials, including advanced ceramics, for use as protective coatings to minimize abrasion and adhesion caused by lunar dust. Preliminary testing that mimics various aspects of lunar dust degradation, such as abrasive wear and adhesion, suggests that COTS ceramic coatings can improve lunar dust tolerance and protect underlying metallic substrates.

Valerie. L. Wiesner↗
NASA NTRS2022

Epoxy Resins with Reduced Viscoelastic Relaxation

The payloads of current space launch systems, e.g. rockets, are constrained to a small size due to aerodynamic, weight, and cost limitations. Deployable structures allow for a folded or stowed configuration during launch and deployment at the mission location. Polymer composites have shown both high weight savings over current metallic structure, as well as improved specific mechanical strengths overall. One issue encountered with polymer composite deployables, however, is stress relaxation of the polymer matrix in the stowed configuration. In this study, a range of different epoxy formulations were evaluated as potential matrix resins for deployable composites. A new multifunctional epoxy resin with a fortifying additive is predicted to show 70% less stress relaxation after 1 year as compared to a state-of-the-art aerospace epoxy matrix.

Ray S. Peterson↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Automating MISSE Specimens Image Analysis

The Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) Project consists of experiments focused on the investigation of the effects that occur through the exposure of materials specimens in the space environment. To determine if there is a change in a specimen, the data obtained from the MISSE high-resolution photographic images can be monitored. For this, a compilation of folders was created to provide an organizational system. Each mission was divided into the specific direction in space, materials specimen, and date the image was taken. This organization helps to identify how a specimen behaves as a function of time in the space environment. Once the images were classified, a qualitative process was first used to detect an evolution in the materials of MISSE-9 - MISSE-14.

MISSE ISS Materials↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Testbed for Lunar Extreme Environment Wear Tolerant Applications

The abrasive dust from lunar regolith poses significant long-term durability and performance challenges to materials, vehicles, mechanisms and structures that will be used for the next generation of lunar exploration. The development of advanced materials, coatings and device technologies that can withstand these abrasive particles and extreme environmental conditions is critical. However, the lack of standardized and accessible methods for evaluating such materials and devices in a facsimile of the harsh lunar environment hinders progress in dust-tolerant technologies. To address this challenge, NASA Langley Research Center is creating an extreme environment testbed. This reconfigurable testbed will allow rapid, repeatable wear testing of material and candidate mechanisms under vacuum conditions, facilitating the development of critical materials technologies for lunar exploration. Preliminary results from exposing an actuating mechanism similar to a pin joint to lunar regolith simulant under high vacuum are reported.

lunar dust↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Testbed for Lunar Extreme Environment Wear Tolerant Applications

The abrasive dust from lunar regolith poses significant long-term durability and performance challenges to materials, vehicles, mechanisms and structures that will be used for the next generation of lunar exploration. The development of advanced materials, coatings and device technologies that can withstand these abrasive particles and extreme environmental conditions is critical. However, the lack of standardized and accessible methods for evaluating such materials and devices in a facsimile of the harsh lunar environment hinders progress in dust-tolerant technologies. To address this challenge, NASA Langley Research Center is creating an extreme environment testbed. This reconfigurable testbed will allow rapid, repeatable wear testing of material and candidate mechanisms under vacuum conditions, facilitating the development of critical materials technologies for lunar exploration. Preliminary results from exposing an actuating mechanism similar to a pin joint to lunar regolith simulant under high vacuum are reported.

lunar dust↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Testbed for Lunar Extreme Environment Wear Tolerant Applications

The abrasive dust from lunar regolith poses significant long-term durability and performance challenges to materials, vehicles, mechanisms and structures that will be used for the next generation of lunar exploration. The development of advanced materials, coatings and device technologies that can withstand these abrasive particles and extreme environmental conditions is critical. However, the lack of standardized and accessible methods for evaluating such materials and devices in a facsimile of the harsh lunar environment hinders progress in dust-tolerant technologies. To address this challenge, NASA Langley Research Center is creating an extreme environment testbed. This reconfigurable testbed will allow rapid, repeatable wear testing of material and candidate mechanisms under vacuum conditions, facilitating the development of critical materials technologies for lunar exploration. Preliminary results from exposing an actuating mechanism similar to a pin joint to lunar regolith simulant under high vacuum are reported.

lunar dust↗