Modal Non-invasive Mass Propellant Gauge for Artemis V Mission Fuel Tanks

As a NASA Pathways Co-op Intern at the NASA Johnson Space Center, my first tour took place in the Propulsion and Power Division in the Engineering Directorate in EP4. As a Propulsion Systems Engineering Intern, I am involved in numerous project groups. One of them is the MPG group, where we design the world's first modal mass propellant gauging system for future-generation rockets. These fuel gauges consisted of non-invasive PZT (lead-zirconium-titanium) patches arrayed across a space shuttle tank test rig. This non-invasive strategy reduced the error rate of fuel readings from 16% down to 2%, paving the way for single stage orbital flights. I perform and code the signal processing data reduction of the PZT sensors on MATLAB to analyze the signatures at which the propellant flows past the sensor.