Lethal Debris Creation following Catastrophic and Sub-Catastrophic Untracked Orbital Debris Impacts on Smallsats

Abstract In this study, we use smooth particle hydrodynamics modeling to examine the creation of mission-lethal non-trackable orbital debris from impacts of 10 g, 100 g, and 10 kg spherical and cylindrical objects on small satellite bus structures at 0, 15, 45, and 75 degrees obliquity. Our simulations include impacts at velocities below, approaching, and above the energy-density threshold that typically disables satellite functionality and creates additional lethal debris. We compare the mass distributions resulting from smooth particle hydrodynamics simulations to the distributions derived from NASA’s satellite breakup model; NASA’s approximation of debris generation aligns well with our simulation results for large, trackable masses but deviates from our simulation results for small, non-trackable masses. Results also show only minor differences in satellite damage and debris generation between spherical and cylindrical 10 kg impactors.