MATERIAL DAMAGE IN-SPACE FROM MICROPARTICLE IMPACT

A large variety of materials have now been recovered from long term ex posure to the space environment. The authors have investigated samples which have spent several years in space on various satellites, includ ing: the NASA satellite 'Long Duration Exposure Facility', the France- Russian 'Aragatz' mission experiment on MIR and the Hubble Space Teles cope. The samples come mainly from experiments devoted to the study of meteoroids and orbital debris and the damage that these can cause to spacecraft materials. In this paper some interesting impact features h ave been selected to demonstrate the different types of damage sustain ed on different materials.