Meteoroid Effects on Space Exploration

Although the meteoroid hazard has not been
adequately evaluated for proper design of space-
craft for missions through cislunar and inter-
planetary space, the extent of meteoroid inter-
actions on space exploration may be estimated.
The available information about meteoroids and
cosmic dust obtained from ground-based obser-
vations and satellite measurements is reviewed.
This data is presently limited to meteoroids and
cosmic dust with heliocentric orbits intersecting
the plane of the ecliptic at one astronomical unit
and interacting with the earth-moon system.
From such information the expectation of the
number of impacts with interplanetary matter as
a function of exposed spacecraft surface area,
exposure time, and meteoroid mass is presented.
An estimate of the hazard has been made using
appropriate hypervelocity cratering criteria.
Some results of other authors are compared with
the expectation of meteoroid interaction effects
herein presented. The probability of damage to
spacecraft is apparently considerably different and a bit less than some earlier estimates.