Multi-layered foil capture of micrometeoroids and orbital debris in low Earth orbit Original Research Article

Analyses of multi-layered polymer insulation foils recovered from the Japanese Space Flyer Unit suggest that such foils have the potential to retain substantial remnants of micrometeoroid and space debris material from hypervelocity impact events. A purpose-built multi-layer foil collector could sample large numbers of impacts from smaller particles in low Earth orbit. Abundant residue could be classified as spece debris or micrometeoroid in origin, both quickly and easily – a significant improvement over materials surveyed on an opportunistic basis (such as solar cells, aluminium surfaces and aluminised multi-layer insulation foils) or metallic foil collectors, in that it would allow recognition of the whole range of impacted projectile compositions in a single survey. The collector is also intended to be relatively easy and cheap to construct, light in weight, negligible in power requirements, easy to deploy, of large surface area, easy to retrieve, small in storage, and unlikely to acquire substantial contamination upon the crucial inner foils.