Thermal-Control-Material-Impact Effect by Micron Space Debris

Abstract

The thermal-control material of spacecraft is easily impacted by micrometeoroid and space debris in orbit. Optical solar reflector is a kind of silvered glass second-surface mirrors, which are applied as spacecraft outer-surface material to reflect sunlight. A system for launching flyer using a -switched Nd:YAG laser with a flattop-appearance beam has been developed for simulating space-debris-impact effects on optical solar reflector. The velocities of the flyer were obtained by laser no-contact velocity-measurement apparatus based on the principle of laser light curtain, which could measure impact velocity unto with a high accuracy of 95%. By launching three kinds of flyer diameter and five kinds of flyer thickness, 56 impact tests have been conducted in flyer velocity ranging from 3.15 to . The results had shown that the splashed-zone diameter of the impacted sample increased obviously, as impact velocity was improved at the same flyer diameter and flyer thickness. The surface thermal-radiation-property degradation was obviously as the change of flyer velocity, flyer thickness, and flyer diameter.