Fragment characteristic of simulated spacecraft under hypervelociy impact

Three hypervelocity impact tests on simulated spacecraft were carried out at ballistic range, to study the characteristic of debris generated by spacecraft fragmentation. The simulated spacecrafts made up of aluminum plates were impacted by aluminum blunt nosed cone projectiles at velocities ranging from 3.2km/s to 4.2km/s. Soft-catch materials were used to collect the fragments and over 96% of masses were collected successfully. The debris were weighed, size measured and catalogued. The size and mass distributions were analyzed based on the method used in NASA Standard Breakup Model. The results showed that the cumulative number (the number of fragments larger than a given length or given mass) yielded as a good linear relationship with characteristic length or mass. The distribution curve could be divided into three sections which were corresponding to three mechanisms of fragment generation. The comparison between the data calculated by NASA's model and the data collected show that NASA's model overestimates the debris population in our tests. Copyright ©2011 by the International Astronautical Federation. All rights reserved.