Meteoroid and Space Debris Impact Investigations in SFU Post Flight Analysis Activities : Preliminary Results and Further Directions

概要

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This report explains early post flight analysis (PFA) operations of the Space Flyer Unit (SFU) spacecraft within the first 6 months after its retrieval from the Low Earth Orbit in January 1996. The special emphasis is given to hypervelocity impact signatures by meteoroids and space debris and surface contamination assessment. Brief reviews are also given for scientific rationales of the PFA activities, meteoroid and debris characteristics, hypervelocity impacts on various spacecraft materials, previous dust detectors and PFAs and the description of the mission profile and components of the SFU. Its on-going impact investigation is in good progress and producing abundant impact data mainly on Kapton MLI and Teflon targets. In total 337 impacts were recorded through various visual inspections, with the detection limit of several hundred μm, depending upon the target materials. Preliminary flux and size distributions of impacts are studied. Detailed CCD scanning will be the next step with as small detection limit of crater/hole sizes as 〜200μm. Calibration impact experiments for the surface materials are also in progress. By completing the impact data base, this will be Japan's first contribution for the near Earth dust environment studies and is hoped to be open to the international research community.
宇宙航空研究開発機構の論文