Hazards by meteoroid impacts onto operational spacecraft Original Research Article

Operational spacecraft in Earth orbit or on interplanetary trajectories are exposed to high-velocity particles that can cause damage to sensitive on-board instrumentation. Asteroids and Comets produce small solid particles as they disintegrate. The meteoroids stay on bound orbits around the Sun if they are larger than a few micrometres in size. Because of their high velocities they create different kinds of hazards to operational spacecraft. Here we discuss the impact hazards that lead to surface degradation, hull penetration, and plasma discharge. Surface degradation is mainly caused by meteoroids in the 0.01 to 0.1 mm range, hull penetration by meteoroids above 1 mm, and plasma discharge by meteoroids between 1 and 10 μm.