Title: A Calorimetric Detection System for Hyper Velocity Impacts (CaDetS)
Duration: 2018 - 2019
Funding scheme: Internationalisation Partnership Awards Scheme (IPAS) 2018
Funds: EUR 6,000
Principal investigator: Dr Robert Camilleri
It is difficult to imagine a world without satellite communication. The internet, TV, radio, GPS and most telecommunications as we know it. In the past years, the satellite market experienced a paradigm shift with the rise of small satellites and constellations formed by hundreds of satellites. It is anticipated that by 2026, 300 satellites per year will be launched, representing a market of $304 billion. The ever-increasing number of Earth-orbiting spacecraft produce a dramatic rise in the risk of suffering damage from space debris. Space debris is any man-made objects in orbit that no longer has a useful purpose, and can be classified in three categories according to size:
The latter can be detected by radars, and satellites in collision course would take evasive manoeuvres. On the other hand, shields are designed to withstand impacts from debris smaller than 1 mm, so these pose no real danger to orbiting satellites. However, space debris between 1mm and 10 mm at low Earth orbit (where velocities are over 5 km/s) offer a threat to orbiting satellites as they are too small to detect and contain significant kinetic energy to damage the satellite shield. In some cases this has been catastrophic.
To address this problem new materials and manufacturing of shields are continuously being developed. To understand the behaviour of the shields under hyper velocity impacts, characterisation experiments are required. Such tests produce iterative improvements in shield design. However, the success of a space mission is always linked to the performance in technology. While traditional material testing achieves a pass or no pass criteria, there is a significant requirement to quantify the level of damage following an impact. This research proposes an early proof of concept for a measurement technique to assess the damage posed by orbital debris to satellites. The research explores the use of thin film gauge temperature sensors for the application and characterization of hypervelocity impacts (HVI) on satellite shields. On impact, part of the kinetic energy of the space debris, is converted into heat. Therefore, by measuring the temperature spike in the material following impact, the kinetic energy can be worked back thus quantifying the level of damage suffered by the shield and the state of the satellite’s mission. This technique has never been explored up till now, due to difficulties related to the complexity of the phenomenon. The Institute of Aerospace Technologies from the University of Malta is therefore proposing this research in collaboration with the Centro di Ateneo di Studi e Attivita’ Spaziali “Giuseppe Colombo” (CISAS) from the Universita’ di Padova and the Institute of Thermofluids at the University of Oxford.