Micrometeroid and debris impact test on space station bumper

To design the micrometeoroid and debris protection bumper of the outboard structure space station module, we made a two-stage helium light gas gun and carried out hypervelocity impact tests which simulated micrometeroid and debris impacts on space station. Fundamental characteristics of hypervelocity impact phenomena was investigated, for a projectile mass 0.45gr to 1.5gr, impact velocity about 4km/sec and aluminum-alloy bumpers. When the bumper is of double-sheet type, there exists an optimal front sheet thickness that causes melting of the front sheet. However, for thin front sheets, penetration occurs, and for thick front sheets, spall fracture occurs. In addition to the impact tests, the computational simulation of the typical test result was carried out using the PISCES code with the Tillotson constitut ive equation of aluminum-alloy. The computational sumulation result had a good agreement with the test result.