Characterizing Secondary Debris Impact Ejecta

Abstract

All spacecraft in low-Earth orbit are subject to high-speed impacts by meteoroids and orbital debris particles. These impacts can damage flight-critical systems which can in turn lead to catastrophic failure of the spacecraft. Therefore, the design of a spacecraft for an Earth-orbiting mission must take into account the possibility of such impacts and their effects on the spacecraft structure and on all of its exposed subsystem components. In addition to threatening the operation of the spacecraft itself, on-orbit impacts also generate a significant amount of ricochet particles. These high-speed particles can destroy critical external spacecraft subsystem and also increase the contamination of the orbital environment. This report presents a summary of the work performed towards the development of an empirical model that characterizes the secondary ejecta created by a high-speed impacta on a typical aerospace structural surface.