The meteoroid and debris protection system for the ATV-spacecraft

Abstract

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will be exposed to natural and man-made particles (Meteoroids and orbital Debris, MoD), impacting at hypervelocity at the vehicle surface during the ATV-mission. These particles can cause severe damage to the primary structure and subsystems. To assure the mission success, the vehicle and its subsystems have to be protected with a Meteoroid and Debris Protection System (MDPS) during all orbital mission phases. In the on-going ESA-ATV Phase C/D development programme, OHB-System has as a subcontractor of Contraves Space the responsibility for the development and manufacturing of the MDPS-structure for the ATV-Spacecraft. The MDPS is designed as a metallic single bumper shield configuration, which protects the cylindrical and conical parts of the Avionics- and Propulsion-module of the ATV-S/C. It is attached to the vehicle primary structure at a specific distance, in order to increase the protection capability against hypervelocity particles. Since the particle flux impacting to the vehicle surface is randomly distributed with regard to particle mass, velocity and direction, the ATV will be designed to survive its design reference mission with a specified probability. For this purpose an environment model, which is based on a statistical description of the MoD distribution in low Earth orbits is applied to determine the impact flux distribution. This impact flux is combined with a structural damage model, which allows to determine the structural failures and a quantitative result of the statistical probability to survive the ATV-mission without a failure due to MoD-impact. This paper describes the major requirements with regard to the protection of the overall ATV-S/C as well as with regard to the MDPS-design. The design of the MDPS, the applied damage laws and impact particle flux distribution as well as the analyses performed to verify the protection capability and structural performance will be shown. Further, the qualification and test programme will be described.