The ability of a typical double-walled spacecraft structure to protect against penetration by high-velocity incident objects is reviewed. The hazards presented by meteoroids are compared to the current and potential hazards due to manmade orbiting objects. It is shown that the nature of the meteoroid number-mass relationship makes adequate protection for large space facilities a conceptually straightforward structural problem. The present level of manmade orbiting objects (an estimated 10,000 in early 1975) does not pose an unacceptable risk to manned space operations proposed for the near future, but it does produce penetration probabilities in the range of 1-10 percent for a 100-m diameter sphere in orbit for 1,000 days. The number-size distribution of manmade objects is such that adequate protection is difficult to achieve for large permanent space facilities, to the extent that future restrictions on such facilities may result if the growth of orbiting objects continues at its historical rate. (Author)


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    Title :

    A Comparison of Spacecraft Penetration Hazards Due to Meteoroids and Manmade Earth-Orbiting Objects


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    1976


    Size :

    27 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English





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