A Detailed Impact Risk Assessment of Possible Protection Enhancements to two LEO Spacecraft

The SHIELD3 impact risk analysis tool has been used to compute the impact-induced probability of no failure (PNF) of two different spacecraft - a radar satellite and an optical satellite - operating in the 2020-2030 low Earth orbit debris environment. Based on this assessment, potential vulnerabilities were identified in the spacecraft designs, and several solutions were proposed for enhancing protection. The effectiveness of each shielding solution was determined by recalculating the spacecraft PNFs. Significant improvements in PNF were achieved, indicating that effective levels of extra protection can be implemented in spacecraft designs within constraints such as cost, mass and volume.