Hypervelocity impact experiments on aerogel dust collector

Abstract

Laboratory hypervelocity impact experiments were conducted to verify the performance of aerogel dust collectors used for gathering meteoroids and space debris in the near‐Earth environment and to derive the relationships of various parameters characterizing the projectile with morphology of tracks left by the penetrating projectile in the aerogel collector pad. Silica aerogel collectors of 0.03 g/cm 3 density were impacted at velocities ranging from 1 to 14 km/s with projectiles of aluminum oxide, olivine, or soda‐lime glass, with diameters ranging from 10 to 400 μm. At impact velocities below 6 km/s the projectiles were captured without fragmentation by the aerogel collector and, in many instances, without complete ablation even at 12 km/s. The shapes and dimensions of the penetration tracks left in the aerogel collector were correlated with the impact parameters, and the results permitted derivation of a series of equations relating the track dimensions to incoming projectile size, impact energy, and other projectile parameters. A simplified model, similar to meteor‐entry phenomena, was used to predict the trends in experimental penetration track lengths and the diameters of captured projectiles.