Design and Development of Micrometeoroid and Orbital Debris Shielding of Typical Spacecraft
摘要
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is having very high flux density of man-made debris and meteoroids. Mission critical systems of LEO spacecraft to be protected from these debris. Spacecraft subsystems like propellant tank, battery, critical electronic packages, etc. are the major critical systems which is fully exposed to these debris and need to be protected. Detailed study of MMOD (Micrometeoroid and Orbital Debris) impact on the critical systems are studied, an optimum MMOD protection shield is designed to improve spacecraft protection with respect to MMOD impact. Considering the space availability below the propellant tank and interface ring, the study is carried out and three layer MMOD shield is selected that meets the MMOD shield requirements of propellant tank. The first layer is selected as AA6061 T6 sheet as bumper, the second layer comprises of six layer of KEVLAR and six layers of NEXTEL attached to sandwich deck, the third layer is AA6061 sheet. To validate the design, two hypervelocity test coupons of similar configurations were developed and hypervelocity impact testing were carried out. The MMOD assembly is qualified for dynamic loads. The three layers MMOD shield for spacecraft is realized after successful hypervelocity test and dynamic test.