![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2015\/06\/hypervelocity_impact_test_damage\/15436933-1-eng-GB\/Hypervelocity_impact_test_damage_small.jpg\")
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\nAn aluminium plate, ripped inwards by a single sand grain-sized fleck of aluminium oxide shot at it during hypervelocity testing.\n<\/p>\n
\nMan-made space debris and natural meteoroids moving at high speed can damage satellites and constitute a serious hazard to spaceflight, especially human spacecraft.\n<\/p>\n
\nTypical impact speeds encountered by satellites are 10 km\/s for space debris and 20 km\/s for meteoroids \u2013 some 10\u201320 times faster than a bullet from a gun.\n<\/p>\n
\nMeasuring approximately 15×15 cm across, the 1.2 mm-thick plate is displayed outside the Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory<\/a> of ESA\u2019s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The main hole, seen here, measures 28×12 mm across, with a few smaller adjacent holes.\n<\/p>\n \nESA engineers typically use numerical simulations to study the potential effects of hypervelocity impacts<\/a> on missions.\n<\/p>\n \nIn addition, ground-based hypervelocity tests are performed at several test sites in Europe. Light gas guns are available at the Ernst-Mach Institut (Germany), CISAS (Italy), Centre d\u2019Etudes de Gramat (France), The Open University and University of Kent (UK). \n<\/p>\n \nElectrostatic accelerators, also used for hypervelocity testing, are used at the Max-Planck Institut f\u00fcr Kernphysik (Germany), The Open University and the TU Munich. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \t\t\t\t\t \nAn aluminium plate, ripped inwards by a single sand grain-sized fleck of aluminium oxide shot at it during hypervelocity testing.\n<\/p>\n \nMan-made space debris and natural meteoroids moving at high speed can damage satellites and constitute a serious hazard to spaceflight, especially human spacecraft.\n<\/p>\n \nTypical impact speeds encountered by satellites are 10 km\/s for space debris and 20 km\/s for meteoroids \u2013 some 10\u201320 times faster than a bullet from a gun.\n<\/p>\n \nMeasuring approximately 15×15 cm across, the 1.2 mm-thick plate is displayed outside the Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory<\/a> of ESA\u2019s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The main hole, seen here, measures 28×12 mm across, with a few smaller adjacent holes.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n