Hypervelocity impact on stuffed Whipple shield exterior

A 7.5 mm-diameter aluminium bullet was shot at 7 km/s towards the same ‘stuffed Whipple shield’ design used to protect ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle and the other International Space Station manned modules. The debris begins by piercing through a blanket made of multilayer insulation, followed by a 1 mm-thick aluminium ‘bumper shield’, seen here.

Testing was carried out for ESA’s Space Environment and Effects section at the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut, EMI, in Freiburg, Germamy, using a high-performance light-gas gun.