Leo micrometeorite/debris impact damage

Abstract

The school bus sized Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) was retrieved in 1990, after nearly six years of 250 nautical mile altitude low earth orbit environmental exposure. The recovery of LDEF experiments has provided extensive information on space interactions, including micrometeorite, debris, atomic oxygen, ultraviolet, and particulate radiation. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory provided a test plate as part of Solar-Array-Materials Passive LDEF (SAMPLE) Experiment. The test plate contained thirty thin silicon solar cell/cover assemblies. The cover samples included a variety of materials such as Teflon and RTV silicones, in addition to conventional microsheet. The nature of the approximately 150 micrometeorite/debris impacts on the cell/cover samples, cell interconnects, and aluminum test plate is discussed.