Study on Protection of Space Structure from Micrometeoroid Impact

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For the hypervelocity impact simulation of micrometeoroids on the space station and other space structures, a plasma accelerator was constructed and tested over the impact velocity of 10 km/s.The effective protection structure is the dual element shield structure. It is required to increase of thickness of the bumper plate and gap between main wall and bumper with increasing impact velocity. A double layer bumper plate consisted of high and low shock impedance materials were tested for reducing weight and gap distance of the protection structure. 0.5 mm glass beads were used as a model of micrometeoroids. This size of beads has been accelerated up to 13.8 km/s.This value is the world record. The double layered bumper plates consisted of 2024Al alloy and copper were tested. It was found thated protection ability of the bumper consisted of front aluminum alloy and rear-copper is very high in the case higher than 10 km/s impact velocity.Since copper density is high, usage of this material as space station structure is not suitable.Ceramics have been considered as light density and high shock impedance materials. The new type bumper consisted of aluminum alloy and aluminum oxide will be tested on the next phase study.