Humanity has a brand new instrument within the struggle towards area junk — “Space Armor™,” a multi-functional composite that would defend each spacecraft and astronauts.
Space Armor is made through a proprietary fiber-to-resin manufacturing methodology courtesy of the corporate Atomic-6, which is predicated in Marietta, Georgia.
But unlike the highway pebble, human-made debris can hit at speeds of 16,000 mph (25,750 kph) or more. If you’re in the way of that ultra-speedy object, it can mess up your day by penetrating fuel tanks, ripping apart batteries and other structures.
Product design
Composites have long been anticipated as a solution for lightweight micrometeoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) shielding protection, said Trevor Smith, CEO of Atomic-6.
“Everyone has known that composite materials can make potentially lighter, stronger MMOD shields,” Smith said. Atomic-6 has made that vision a reality with its Space Armor tile, thanks to a combination of product design and composite skills.
Space Armor™’s fiber-to-resin manufacturing method also provides another benefit: An enclosure using the tiles not only can protect communication gear, it also offers communications transparency. That means the system can safeguard mission-critical radio communications to and from the satellite as well.
Taking the shot
“It has taken around 18 months to take Space Armor™ tiles from an idea to a final product. So we took the shot at making a tile, and were blown away by the test results,” Smith told Space.com. “We offer Space Armor™ in simple hex tiles, but we can technically make Space Armor™ into most any shape you want.”
Over the decades, a “Whipple Shield” came into wide use for mitigating space debris impacts. This structure was introduced by American astronomer Fred Whipple again within the Nineteen Forties and continues to be in use at present. In easy phrases, a Whipple Shield is a sacrificial bumper on a satellite tv for pc, normally product of aluminum, that absorbs the preliminary affect.
However, as a result of Whipple Shields are product of metallic, they generate fragments when taking a success. Fragmentation leftovers turn out to be dangerous secondary rubble that may go on to strike different satellites or astronauts.
Space Armor™ has undergone in depth hypervelocity testing right here on Earth, making use of projectile-firing “guns” used to simulate high-speed run-ins with area particles on a small scale.
Smith stated that Atomic-6 will probably be sending Space Armor™ tiles to orbit with satellite tv for pc clients subsequent 12 months.
“The orbital environment has surprisingly high amounts of debris already,” he stated, “so we would effectively be testing the tiles using ‘natural analogues’ of hypervelocity guns. The orbital debris is already up there.”