Research on Performance of Mesh Bumper against Space Debris

As a kind of lightweight shield, mesh bumper had been used to protect International Space Station(ISS) against space debris. In some documents, it is concluded that meshes comminute hypervelocity projectiles with efficiencies comparable to contiguous targets. This is partially validated by hypervelocity impact experiments in the paper, and the hypervelocity impact characterization of mesh bumper is studied by numerical simulation, it is found that mesh bumper can effectively comminute projectile and disperse debris cloud. Next, the sensitivity of major variables such as impact velocity, the area-density of single mesh bumper, and multi-layer mesh bumper will be studied.