Standards Development

Scope

This document describes an experimental procedure for assessing the behaviors, under orbital debris or meteoroid impacts, of materials that are intended to be used on the external surfaces of spacecraft and launch vehicle orbital stages. This document provides a unified method by which to rank materials. The ejecta production characteristics of different materials are compared under standardized conditions in which test parameters are fixed to one number. Optional tests with different parameters are also useful for the proper selection of materials in other conditions, and they could be performed as research items.

This document establishes the requirements to be satisfied for the test methods in order to characterize the amount of ejecta produced when a surface material is impacted by a hypervelocity projectile. Its purpose is to evaluate the ratio of ejecta total mass to projectile mass, and the size distribution of the fragments. These are the necessary inputs for modelling the amount of impact ejecta that a surface material might release during its orbital lifetime, thereby helping to assess its suitability for space use while mitigating the production of small space debris.

The purpose of this document is to provide data that needs to be taken into account in the selection of outer spacecraft materials, though the selection is not based on these criteria alone.

The experimental procedure defines

— the type of facility to be used,

— the size, velocity and type of projectile to be used,

— the evaluation of impact ejecta released,

— reporting test results, and

— the quality requirements to be used.

It is anticipated that this document will be the first of several test procedure standards aimed at characterizing the release of small debris from the external surfaces of spacecraft and launch vehicle orbital stages as the result of interaction with the space environment. It is applicable to spacecraft and launch vehicles operating in all types of Earth orbits.