NASA's Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle (OMV) is being designed to withstand a 10-year lifetime in polar and low earth orbits. A large percentage of OMV's lifetime will be spent operating in the vicinity of the Space Shuttle and Space Station or in storage at these manned locations. An extensive analysis has been performed to determine the effects of the meteoroid and orbital debris environments on OMV's external fuel tanks. A finite element model of OMV was constructed using NASTRAN and analyzed with the meteoroid and debris design analysis code BUMPER. The results show that the long design lifetime, and the ever increasing man-made orbital debris environment, will require the use of shielding over the external fuel tanks.


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    Title :

    Meteoroid and orbital debris shielding on the Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    1989-01-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English