Primary study on shielding performance of aerogel/fiberglass composite stuffed in thermal insulation shield

As excellent thermal protective property was found in the Aerogel/Fiberglass Composite (AFC), it could be possible to improve both the thermal insulation and debris shielding performance of a spacecraft with AFC stuffed in the debris shield. To explore the shielding performance of the AFC stuffed shield, hypervelocity impact tests were carried out at hypervelocity impact range A of CARDC. The projectiles are aluminum spheres with 4.0mm to 6.0mm diameter, while the impact velocity ranges from 3.0km/s to 7.0km/s. The targets were AFC stuffed shields and aluminum triple-wall shield with the same areal density. AFC were stuffed in two different positions of the shield: one was close to the face place of rear wall, the other was in the middle of the bumper and rear wall. The shielding performance of between AFC stuffed shield and aluminum triple-wall shield were compared. The difference on shielding performances of the debris shields stuffed with AFC in different position was investigated. It is found that the shielding performance of the AFC stuffed shield is better than that of the aluminum triple-wall shield obviously, and different AFC stuffed positions do not play much difference in shielding performance. The thermal insulation property of shields with AFC stuffed were primarily discussed.