test

1. Space Environment
Lecture 50 – Space Debris (Vol. 5)
Hypervelocity impacts (Part 3)
Professor Hugh Lewis
SESA3038 Space Environment

2. Overview of lecture 50
• In this lecture we look at some of the important hypervelocity impact
experiments that have taken place using the ‘range G’ light gas gun at
Arnold Airforce base (USAF)
– SOCIT
– DebriSat
– DebrisLV
• In the next lecture we will see how the results from these experiments have
been used to create a model describing the effects of hypervelocity impacts
on satellites
Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)

3. SOCIT
Satellite Orbital Debris
Characterization Impact Test
Series of impact tests December
1991 to January 1992
Test conducted at Arnold
Engineering Development Center
Range G
SOCIT4 targeted a flight-ready
Navy Transit satellite bus
• Aimed to account for 90% of mass
• Analysed 59% of mass
Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)

4. SOCIT Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)
https://timeandnavigation.si.edu/multimedia-asset/transit-satellite
SOCIT4 targeted a flight-ready Navy Transit satellite bus

5. SOCIT4 Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)
Navy Transit-O (Oscar) satellite:
46 cm diameter, 25 cm height
35 kg (at test)
Primary materials:
• Aluminium, copper, fibreglass, plastic and steel
• Batteries and solar panels removed for the test
• Batteries replaced with aluminium blocks
• Solar panels tested in earlier SOCIT test

6. SOCIT4 Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)
Aluminium sphere projectile
• 4.7 cm diameter, 150 g mass
• Impact speed 6.1 km/s (Energy 81 J/g)
Data recording:
• Foam panels mounted up-range, to the side, and down-
range
• Front-lit laser cameras
• Spectrometers and radiometers
• Flash X-ray
• Passive collection of fragments (111 large fragments,
4600 total fragments in database)

7. DebriSat Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)
https://www.orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/measurements/debrisat.html
Test targeted a custom-built representative satellite bus
56 kg hexagonal prism (diameter 60 cm, height 50 cm)
Modern components and materials

8. DebriSat Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)
Aluminium hollow cylinder projectile
8.6 cm diameter, 570 g mass
6.8 km/s impact speed (energy 235 J/g)

9. DebriSat set-up Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)
View looking up-range View looking down-range

10. DebriSat HVI test Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)

11. DebriSat HVI test Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)

12. DebriSat HVI test Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)
Test conducted 15 April 2014
Before and after the test:

13. DebriSat measurements Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)
DebriSat diagnostic equipment and methods:
• X-ray systems with microsecond interval (projectile)
• High-speed CCD cameras (impact footage)
• High-speed colour video camera
• High-speed infrared imager
• Ultraviolet-visible spectrometer (impact flash)
• Witness plates (to collect material deposited)
• Small sample collection stubs
• Piezoelectric sensors mounted in DebriSat (shockwaves)
• Gas sampling bottles (to collect smoke)
• Passive collection of fragments (126,000 collected by Feb 2017)

14. DebriSat results Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)
Witness plate
Mounted 3 m up-range:

15. DebriSat results Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)
Witness plate
Before and after the test:

16. DebrisLV Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)
Test conducted 1 April 2014
Representative launch
vehicle stage:

17. DebrisLV Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)

18. DebrisLV Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)
https://aerospace.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/Crosslink%20Fall%202015%20V16N1%20.pdf
Before and after the test:

19. Recap of lecture 50
• In this lecture we looked at some of the important hypervelocity impact
experiments that have taken place using the ‘range G’ light gas gun at
Arnold Airforce base (USAF)
– SOCIT
– DebriSat
– DebrisLV
• In the next lecture we will see how the results from these experiments have
been used to create a model describing the effects of hypervelocity impacts
on satellites
Space Environment – Space Debris (Vol. 5)