Development of a High Speed Rain Impact Capability

Abstract: Enhancement of a 2-stage light gas gun capability is under development at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center for the purpose of making rain impacts on nose cone and window materials. This paper will discuss current capabilities of this gun system and the path it took to get there. The end goal is to be able to provide realistic rain and thermal environments, simulating rain impact conditions of high speed flight (combined effects). In the past year, the ability to create impacts to simulate ra…