A lightweight debris shield using high strength fibers

The purpose of this study was to develop a new lightweight shield using high strength fibers against hypervelocity impacts from space debris (in particular, 1 to 10 cm in diameter). We developed the new lightweight shield using Vectran fibers. The experimental results showed that the developed shield could stop the polycarbonate projectile with 14 mm in diameter, 1 gram in weight, 3.14 km/s and 6.59 km/s in velocity. The areal density of the developed shield was as half as that of Japanese Experiment Module (JEM). Adoption of the high strength fibers in the bumper may reinforce the protection capability and reduce the weight drastically. In addition, we compared the results of hypervelocity impact tests with the numerical analysis using SPH method.