Part of the LDEF tray allocated to French experiments (FRECOPA) has been devoted to the study of dust particles. The tray was located on the face of LDEF directly opposed to the velocity vector. Crater size distributions have made possible the evaluation of the incident microparticle flux in the near-Earth environment. Comparisons are made with measurements obtained on the other faces of LDEF (tray clamps), on the leading edge (MAP) and with results of a similar experiment flown on the MIR space station. The geometry of impact craters, depth in particular, provides useful information on the nature of impacting particles and the correlation of geometry with the chemical analysis of projectile remnants inside craters make possible a discrimination between meteoroids and orbital debris. Emphasis has been laid on the size distribution of small craters in order to assess a cut-off in the distribution of particles in LEO. Special attention has been paid to the phenomenon of secondary impacts. A comparison of flight data with current models of meteoroids and space debris shows a fair agreement for LDEF, except for the smaller particles: the possible contribution of orbital debris in GTO orbits to the LDEF trailing edge flux is discussed. For MIR, flight results show differences with current modeling: the possible enhancement of orbital debris could be due to the contaminating presence of a permanently manned space station.


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    Title :

    Micrometeoroids and Debris on Ldef Comparison with Mir Data


    Contributors:
    J. Mandeville (author) / L. Berthoud (author)

    Publication date :

    1995


    Size :

    11 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Micrometeoroids and Debris on LDEF: Comparison With MIR Data

    Mandeville, J.-C. / Berthoud, L. / National Aeronautics and Space Administration et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1995


    Orbital debris and micrometeoroids: LDEF and Mir Data

    Mandeville, J.-C. / Centre national d'etudes spatiales | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1992


    Micrometeoroids and debris on LDEF comparison with MIR data

    Mandeville, Jean-Claude / Berthoud, Lucinda | NTRS | 1995


    Micrometeoroids and debris

    Potter, Andrew | NTRS | 1989


    Micrometeoroids and Debris

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