Latest NESC News
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By Donald S. Parkerdonald.s.parker@nasa.gov Download PDF: A Combination of Techniques Leads to Improved Friction Stir Welding The NESC developed several innovative tools and techniques during an assessment to find the root cause of poor tensile strength and low topography anomalies…
By Patrick E. Leserpatrick.e.leser@nasa.gov Download PDF: NESC Develops Method for Estimating Risk When Reducing NDE Performing nondestructive evaluation (NDE) can have both cost and schedule impacts, leading some to question whether descoping (i.e., reducing or eliminating) NDE inspections on certain spaceflight…
This article is from the 2025 Technical Update. The exact date when the crew of Space Shuttle Columbia was lost is readily recalled by Patrick Forrester, as it likely would be for any NASA employee in service that Saturday morning…
By Dr. Dexter Johnsondexter.johnson@nasa.gov Download PDF: Efficient Large Displacement/Large Rotation Dynamic Simulations Using Nonlinear Dynamic Substructures Utilizing reduced-order dynamic math models (DMM) in linear system-level dynamic analyses is a well-known practice that enables extreme computational efficiencies. But what about nonlinear…
By Dr. Brody K. Bessirebrody.k.bessire@nasa.gov Download PDF: Insights into Spallation Mechanisms of Thermal Protection System Materials from Mass Spectrometry and HyMETS Testing An effort was undertaken to investigate the mechanisms responsible for internal pressure build up within thermal protection system (TPS) materials…
By Annika M. Vaidyanathan, Alexander Chin, John Bell, and Rumaasha Maasha Download PDF: Computational Modeling of Failure at the Fabric Weave Level in Reentry Parachute Energy Modulators Energy modulators (EM) are textile mechanical devices designed to dissipate snatch loads that occur when parachutes are…
This article is from the 2025 Technical Update. The human factors TDT looks for and creates opportunities to influence design to leverage human strengths and to protect people and missions. The human factors team has experts with knowledge of human…
This article is from the 2025 Technical Update. The NESC has invested significant time and resources to better understand composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPV) performance and more importantly, how these complex, high-pressure storage systems can fail. These vessels, which store high pressure propulsion…
This article is from the 2025 Technical Update. The NESC’s Thermal Control & Protection Technical Discipline Team (TDT) is a resource providing subject matter expertise in active and passive thermal control as well as ascent and entry thermal protection across…
The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) partnered with Materials and Processes and Flammability subject matter experts from the Johnson Space Center, White Sands Test Facility, and the Marshall Space Flight Center to design and develop a test for evaluating…