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\nWhat looks like a mushroom cloud turned sideways is actually the instant an 2.8 mm-diameter aluminium bullet moving at 7 km\/s pierces a spacecraft shield, captured by a high-speed camera<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWe used a gas gun at Germany\u2019s Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics<\/a> to test a novel material being considered for shielding spacecraft against space debris,\u201d explains ESA researcher Benoit Bonvoisin.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cOur project has been looking into various kinds of \u2018fibre metal laminates\u2019 produced for us by GTM Structures, which are several thin metal layers bonded together with composite material.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nGrowing levels of orbital debris pose increasing risks to all kinds of Earth-orbiting missions, adds engineer Andreas Tesch: \u201cSuch debris can be very damaging because of their high impact speeds of multiple kilometres per second.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cLarger pieces of debris can at least be tracked so that large spacecraft such as the International Space Station can move out of the way, but pieces smaller than 1 cm are hard to spot using radar \u2013 and smaller satellites have in general fewer opportunities to avoid collision.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nIn some orbital regions small natural meteoroids can also pose a threat, in particular during intense seasonal meteoroid streams such as the Leonids.\n<\/p>\n \nTo avoid damage from whatever source, protection is needed against small debris, typically consisting of one or more shields. Often used is the \u2018Whipple shield\u2019 \u2013 originally devised to guard against comet dust \u2013 with multiple layers separated by 10\u201330 cm.\n<\/p>\n \nThe project, supported through ESA\u2019s General Support Technology Programme<\/a>, which prepares promising technology for spaceflight, looked at the efficiency of fibre metal laminates compared to current aluminium shields.\n<\/p>\n \nThis still from the video shows the point after which the solid aluminium bullet has broken apart into a cloud of fragments and vapour, which becomes easier for the following layers to capture or deflect.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe next step would be to perform in-orbit demonstration in a CubeSat, to assess the efficiency of these FMLs in the orbital environment,\u201d concludes Benoit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \nWhat looks like a mushroom cloud turned sideways is actually the instant an 2.8 mm-diameter aluminium bullet moving at 7 km\/s pierces a spacecraft shield, captured by a high-speed camera<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n