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Most spacecraft shielding solutions involve
a combination of standard spacecraft shielding materials.
A handful of proven and prototype shields are
briefly discussed and illustrated below.
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This Monolithic Shield is the brute force approach and does
not win any points for ingenuity.
It's simply a slab of aluminum capable of absorbing the entire force of an
impact. This shielding method is mostly relevant as a comparison to
equivalent mass advanced shields. Also, the monolithic shield can be used
to represent the "default shielding" (a simple aluminum wall) against meteoroid
and debris impacts.
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The Whipple Shield is the first spacecraft shield ever implemented. It was
introduced by Fred Whipple back in the 1940s, and is still in use today.
Simply, it consists of placing a sacrificial bumper, usually aluminum, in
front of the spacecraft, thus allowing it to absorb the initial impact. The
Whipple bumper shocks the projectile and creates a debris cloud
containing smaller, less lethal, bumper and projectile fragments. The full force of
the debris cloud is diluted over a larger area on the spacecraft rearwall.
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This is what the Debris Cloud looks likes like on the rearwall of a
Whipple shield. The debris has caused damage to a wide area of the
rearwall, but did not perforate it.
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The Stuffed Whipple Shield is a variation of the simple Whipple
shield. Layers of Nextel and Kevlar are inserted in between the bumper and
the rearwall. These additional layers further shock and pulverize the
debris cloud such that any fragments reaching the rearwall are benign.
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The Mars Module Shield is a prototype shield developed for a future manned
mission to Mars. The shield consists of layers of Mylar, Nextel, Kevlar,
and foam. The foam is cored out inside in order to reduce mass. The foam
design is used because it is desired that the shielding be compressible for
launch (the entire Mars Transhab spacecraft must fit within the Space Shuttle). The
shield will expand once the spacecraft is deployed in space.
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The Mesh Double Bumper Shield consists of a double layer
bumper of aluminum mesh, followed by an aluminum rearwall.
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The Multi-Shock Shield is a popular shielding design. It consists of
staggering layers of Nextel at specified standoff distances. The multiple
layers of Nextel repeatibly shock the projectile and debris cloud until the
remaining fragments are too harmless to breach the rearwall.
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The Beta Cloth Shield was tested as a possible shielding design for the ISS
Common Berthing Module (CBM) shield. It consists of multiple layers of beta
cloth placed in front of a rearwall.
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