Enhanced meteoroid and orbital debris shielding

An innovative, low-weight shield system has been developed by NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) engineers to enhance the protection of conventional Whipple shields. This shield, the ''Stuffed Whipple'' shield, includes a flexible blanket combining Nextel(TM) ceramic fabric and Kevlar(TM) fabric (or ''stuffing'') between the aluminum bumper and rear wall of a Whipple shield. The Stuffed Whipple (SW) shield is particularly effective if shield standoffs are short (i.e., shield spacing to projectile diameter ratios of 15 or less). Alternative shields using aluminum, Nextel(TM) or Kevlar(TM) alone as the intermediate bumper were tested but did not provide the same level of protection performance for the weight as a combination of Nextel(TM) and Kevlar(TM). Hypervelocity impact (HVI) testing with greater than Ig aluminum projectiles using Light-Gas Guns (LGG) up to similar to 7 km/sec and Shaped-Charge Launchers (SCL) up to similar to 11 km/sec were used in the development program.