Ping-Pong Balls to Float Crew Capsule Simulator

August 24, 2010 — If ping-pong balls can float a sunken boat, they should be able to keep an unmanned space capsule simulator from sinking. Right? That's what a team of summer students and engineers think at NASA’s Langley Research Center. Langley is fabricating a proposed design of an astronaut crew module simulator for unmanned flight-testing as part of the agency's effort to build a vehicle to replace the space shuttle. Because the crew module will not be pressurized during the test, it will not float like a pressurized spacecraft This puts the simulated crew module at risk of sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after splashdown. To save the valuable test article for analysis and possible reuse, Langley called on a team of creative minds for a solution. As it turned out, inexpensive, lightweight ping-pong balls provided the answer. Langley engineer John DiNonno proposed the idea, and the Orion Flight Test Office told the team to study it. DiNonno got the idea from a Discovery Channel program about raising a sunken boat using 27,000 ping-pong balls. Engineer David Covington said that when DiNonno suggested the ping-pong ball idea, "I just laughed. Not a 'what are you thinking' kind of laugh, but more of a 'that's the most awesome thing I've heard in a long time' laugh. I asked him 'are you serious?' and he said 'yeah, we're authorized to do a four-week study.' So we went straight to work." Ensuring the outcome would be relatively low-cost was a top priority, said DiNonno. "Recovering the capsule was not a requirement, but it was a desire," he said. "So there wasn't going to be a lot of investment in it." The students divided the tasks needed to determine if the idea was feasible, each becoming a "principal investigator" for a specific area. The ping-pong balls passed all the challenges, said Heather Blount, a materials science engineering student at Virginia Tech. Keeping the crew module afloat would take at least 150,000 ping-pong balls, the students estimate, at a retail price of 50 cents or less each -- a fraction of the cost of traditional options. The students hope to reduce the cost through a bulk purchase. Approval of the flight test, as well as a launch date, has yet to be determined.

NASA Langley students gather around the crew module mockup that they propose to keep afloat with ping-pong balls after it splashes down. From left, front row: Edward Tillistrand, Brice Collamer, Patrick Cragg, Caroline Kirk and Kurian Thomas. In the capsule, from left; Joseph Randall Hunt, Heather Blount and Victor Stewart. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith Students estimate it will take at least 150,000 ping-pong balls to keep the crew module afloat. Photo credit: NASA

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