1. Experimental Study on Characteristics of Satellite Breakup Debris.
- Author
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LIU Sen, LAN Sheng-wei, MA Zhao-xia, LI Yi, and HUANG Jie
- Subjects
- *
ARTIFICIAL satellites , *BALLISTIC ranges , *SPACE debris , *HYPERVELOCITY , *PROJECTILES - Abstract
To study the characteristics of debris generated by satellite breakup, three hypervelocity impact tests for simulated satellites are carried out at the ballistic range. The simulated satellites are impacted by aluminum blunt nosed cone projectiles at velocities ranging from 3.2km/s to 4.2km/s. The breakup fragments are collected, weighed, size measured and catalogued. The test results show that; 1) the cumulative number of debris is expressed as a good linear relation to characteristic length or mass in logarithmic coordinates, 2) the debris size and mass distributions are very similar in basic forms and patterns. The expression formulas of size and mass distributions are established by data fitting, and the inherent relation between debris size and mass is analyzed. The test results are compared with NASA standard breakup model, and differences and reasons are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012
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