PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF IMPACT ON MULTIPLE SHEET STRUCTURES AND AN EVALUATION OF THE METEOROID HAZARD TO SPACE VEHICLES
Abstract
Small pyrex glass spheres, representative of stoney meteoroids, were fired into 2024-T3 aluminum alclad multiple-sheet structures at velocities to 11,000 fps to evaluate the effectiveness of multisheet hull construction as a means of increasing the resistance of a spacecraft to meteoroid penetrations. The results of these tests indicate that increasing the number of sheets in a structure while keeping the total sheet thickness constant and increasing the spacing between sheets both tend to increase the penetration resistance of a structure of constant weight per unit area. In addition, filling the space between the sheets with a light filler material was found to substantially increase structure penetration resistance with a small increase in weight. An evaluation of the meteoroid hazard to space vehicles is presented in the form of an illustrative example for 2 speci ic lunar mission vehicles, a single-sheet, monocoque hull vehicle and a glass-wool filled, double-sheet hull vehicle. The evaluation is presented in terms of the best and the worst conditions that might be expected as determined from astronomical and satellite measurements, highspeed impact data, and hypothesized meteoroid structures and compositions. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1961
- Accession Number
- AD0263199
Entities
People
- C. Robert Nysmith
- James L. Summers
Organizations
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration