Creative adaptation of interconnect technology across industry boundaries

This paper will address the creative adaptation of a series of unique interconnect technologies across distinctly different industries, and markets. These technologies were adapted from the subsea and aerospace industries, and applied to a NASA application and environment, specifically for the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) program [1]. Subsea technologies are understandably among the most difficult to conceptualize, design and then implement. Designers unfamiliar with the subsea environment frequently underestimate the difficulty of this design environment (How hard can it be...), and quickly find out that connectors and cable systems that live in the ocean must contend with a wide variety of harsh environment demands. Very often, the failure of subsea components can be traced to a lack of appreciation for the very harsh environment that equipment must live in for example for extended periods of time in the ocean. As system designers discover, the functionality of multi-million dollar equipment can be at risk unless the interconnect systems that serve that equipment are given the equivalent level of design focus. These harsh environment conditions include seawater corrosion, high direct and differential pressures, low oxygen in low flow areas, high vibration and in many cases unique dynamic structural demands. These conditions require the designer to include all these concerns in the design, and failing to do so can result in very rapid failure, in some cases days or weeks. The subsequent RCCA (Root Cause and Corrective Action) for subsea failures frequently points back to a failure to anticipate the full range of conditions to be seen, and a failure to flow down a specification that fully anticipates the in situ conditions. Many of these harsh environment conditions or operations requirements can and frequently do find their way to other industries, usually in the form of one or two of the harsh environment requirements. For example, a terrestrial environment would not have the high pressure demands of a deep ocean or aerospace project, but very well operate in an area subject to high corrosion. In this paper, we will use as a study template the requirement for a Quick Disconnect, Hybrid fiber optic product needed for a NASA application, specifically for the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) program. The specific technologies needed did not exist as a package, and therefore had to be borrowed from other industries. A needed quick disconnect feature was borrowed from ROV design principles, and the high performing hybrid (2 optic, 2 electric) connectivity was borrowed from typical subsea designs that require transmit and receive optics, as well as electrical power. We will cover how these technologies were borrowed from the subsea and aerospace industries, brought together and then packaged creatively in an interconnect application that would successfully meet the demands of a terrestrial launch system. This interconnect design adaptation was accomplished by creatively leveraging the unique features of successful ocean technologies into a new application and industry in need of these specific features. The paper will explain the features, characterize their performance, and explain how they were brought together in the design process, and then deployed in a highly successful terrestrial project.