Design And High Velocity Impact Test Verification Of Flexible Space Debris Protection Shield

Inflatable and deployable space module is the most desired for future space stations and space structures. The outer shell of such inflatable module is made up of several layers for debris protection, seal and thermal control. In order to protect the module from the debris and make it easy to be packaged and deployed, the outer protection shields of such modules were designed to be made of polyurethane foam and some kinds of fabrics. This paper proposes a design of such flexible and inflatable protection shield based on the multi-shock structure. The parameters of such shields are determined by home-made Basalt fiber and aromatic polyamide fiber. Before test verification, the design parameters of such debris shield are determined by simulation based on multi-shock structure and such ballistic limit equation. And then High Velocity Impact (HVI) test program was conducted to verify that the design parameters can meet the design requirement of the inflatable and deployable structure.