HYPERVELOCITY IMPACTS OF HIGH-PRESSURE HIGH-DENSITY PLASMA PULSES ON METALLIC SURFACES

At the Lehrstuhl fur Raumfahrttechnik (LRT) of the Technical Universit y at Munich (TUM) various types of electrothermal and electromagnetic launchers have been developed to simulate micrometeoroid and space deb ris impacts. This paper describes both, the generation of specific Hyp ervelocity Plasma Pulses (HPP) by using these launchers and the intera ction of these HPP with metallic targets. The paper deals with the ana lysis of characteristic parameters of the HPP and describes the curren t experimental evaluation of the impact of the HPP on the metallic tar get. The resulting changes of the structure and the composition of the surface layer of the metallic target are also described.