Expanding the capabilities that are used in the NASA’s exploration of planetary bodies in our solar system would require mechanisms and actuators that can operate at cryogenic temperatures (-240 °C to -60 °C) in dusty environments. These applications include the exploration of lunar surface environments with temperatures that are below -100 °C. For this purpose, the authors are working on developing piezoelectric motors capable of operating at such extreme conditions. Novel piezoelectric motors were conceived and are being investigated to enable precision deployment and motion mechanisms that can be used for potential actuation of antennas and solar arrays, lower power robot arms, and percussive drills. This motor technology is intended to be integrated in a testbed developed at NASA to demonstrate its capabilities once it has been characterized at room temperature. These motors are being developed as game changers for enabling rotational drive mechanisms (rovers, robots, gimbals, drills, etc.) in extremely cold and dusty environments. These drive systems will be operated without the use of heaters or atmospheric control chambers (which eliminates grease lubrication) to raise the actuator’s temperature. Further, these motors will enable actuation of very high precision mechanisms having lower power motion without gears or gear lubrication, backlash, or power consumption to hold position. These actuators contain piezoelectrically-excited fixtures that are vibrated out of phase such that they sequentially push the rotor to produce continuous rotation. A proof-of-concept linear actuator that uses fixtures with flexure-preloaded piezoelectric stacks and operates in an inch-worm configuration at low frequency has been developed and demonstrated. Further, a proof-of-concept rotary actuator is currently being developed that uses a V-shaped piezoelectric fixture driven in resonance that generates an elliptical motion at the horn tip to drive a rotor. In this paper, the latest progress will be presented.
It is well known that guided ultrasonic waves are suitable to detect damages in composite plates. It has also been shown that these Lamb waves can be utilized to infer material properties through nondestructive measurements. More recently, it was shown that this may be used to determine regional inhomogeneity that is inherent to composite materials due to manufacturing imperfections. In this project, it is investigated whether automated processing of Lamb wave-based data is generally suitable to detect such imperfections. Woven prepreg and short-fiber composite panels are manufactured. A large set of nondestructive measurements are conducted to determine dispersion and attenuation characteristics for multiple regions across each panel. Automated signal processing is performed to extract characteristic features of the signal, which are in turn used to identify any differences within the panels. Moreover, it is studied which type of sensing technology, such as contact transducers, air-coupled transducers or a laser Doppler vibrometer are most suitable for this task. That is, ultrasound measurements with different actuator and sensor combinations are accompanied by additional transducer characterization measurements. Optimal frequency ranges for each transducer are determined in addition to studying potential effects of transducer orientation. Based on all findings, it can be concluded that detecting regional inhomogeneity remains challenging due to various compounding limitations, such as optimal transducer frequency ranges, human error and generally low signal-to-noise ratios in Lamb wave-based measurements, especially at longer propagation distances. In turn, the development of guided wave-based nondestructive evaluation methods require a holistic approach with careful considerations of the employed transducers.
Planetary protection of returned Mars samples to Earth in a future NASA mission is a critical part of preventing uncontrolled biological materials being released from the samples. The planetary protection process requires addressing the potential risks and would involve “breaking the chain of contact (BTC)”, where any returned material reaching Earth for further analysis would have to be sealed inside a container with extremely high confidence. The sterilization process would require destroying any potential biological materials that may contaminate the external surface of the container. A novel process for containing the returning samples has been conceived and is in development at JPL. The process consists of using induction heated brazing to synchronously sterilize, separate, seam and seal the container.
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