Hypervelocity impact on stuffed Whipple shield innermost layer

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 multiple layers of the shield have dissipated the overall mass and energy of the debris so that it has harmlessly scorched the innermost 3 mm-thick aluminium wall, which in real life would be the inner pressure shell of the ATV.

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.