Orbital Debris Assessment Testing in the AEDC Range G

Abstract

The space environment presents many hazards for satellites and spacecraft. One of the major hazards is hypervelocity impacts from uncontrolled man-made space debris. Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the United States Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), the University of Florida, and the Aerospace Corporation configured a large ballistic range to perform a series of hypervelocity destructive impact tests in order to better understand the effects of space collisions. The test utilized AEDC's Range G light gas launcher, which is capable of firing projectiles up to 7km/sec. A nonfunctional full-scale representation of a modern satellite called the DebriSat was destroyed in the enclosed range environment. Several modifications to the range facility were made to ensure quality data was obtained from the impact events. The facility modifcations were intended to provide a high-impact energy-to-target-mass ratio (>200J/g), a nondamaging method of debris collection, and an instrumentation suite capable of providing information on the physics of the entire impact event.