Design of a secondary debris containment shield for large space structures

All long-duration spacecraft are susceptible to impacts by meteoroids and pieces of orbiting space debris. Such impacts are expected to occur at extremely high speeds and can damage internal and external flight-critical systems of spacecraft. An effective mechanism is developed to protect external spacecraft subsystems against damage by ricochet particles formed during such impacts. Equations and design procedures for protective shield panels are developed based on observed ricochet phenomena and calculated ricochet particle sizes and speeds. Panel dimensions are shown to be strongly dependent on their inclination and on their distribution around a spacecraft module. It is concluded that obliquity effects of high-speed impacts must be considered in the design of any structure exposed to the meteoroid and space debris environment.