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With Catastrophes In Mind, Supercomputing Project Simulates Space Junk Collision
aarondubrow writes "Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin developed a fundamentally new way of simulating fabric impacts that captures the fragmentation of the projectiles and the shock response of the target. Running hundreds of simulations on supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, they assisted NASA in the development of ballistic limit curves that predict whether a shield will be perforated when hit by a projectile of a given size and speed. The framework they developed also allows them to study the impact of projectiles on body armor materials and to predict the response of different fabric weaves upon impact." With thousands of known pieces of man-made space junk, as well plenty of natural ones, it's no idle concern.
I've seen numerous studies and theories about the ballistic impact of asteroid strikes and satellite collisions. I've seen nothing on the _spin_, the angular momentum, imparted by such impacts. Even if the shield survives, if the angular momentum imparted by an off-center impact is large enough, the impacted satellite or space craft could well be spinning faster than its available rocket resources can compensate for, or even beyond the ability of its communications and guidance systems to plan a recovery. This possibility could actually be made _worse_ by installing effective shielding. An impact that would have previously left a small hole through the spacecraft would instead be stopped or deflected and instead deposit far more angular momentum.
Has anyone here seen or participated in such analyses?