Comparison of self-healing ionomer to aluminium-alloy bumpers for protecting spacecraft equipment from space debris impacts

This paper discusses the impact behavior of a self-healing ionomeric polymer and compares its protection capability against space debris impacts to that of simple aluminium-alloy bumpers. To this end, 14 impact experiments on both ionomer and Al-7075-T6 thin plates with similar surface density were made with 1.5 mm aluminium spheres at velocity between 1 and 4 km/s.     

Impact risk analysis for a spacecraft in Cosmo-Skymed orbit

This paper presents a case study of Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris risk assessment for a spacecraft flying in an orbit close to that of the Italian Cosmo-Skymed constellation. The aim of the analysis was to calculate the failure flux impinging on the satellite external shell, taking into account both geometry and materials of satellite surfaces. Furthermore the analysis included the evaluation of the contribution to debris population at the selected orbit of the fragments produced by a Chinese Anti-SATellite experiment, which caused the catastrophic break-up of the satellite Fengyun 1C in January 2007.