Development of Hypervelocity Impact Capabilities for Astro-materials and Planetary Defense Applications

Apollo 11 Postdoctoral Fellowships at Purdue - Proposal
Zherui Martinez-Guo, Assistant Professor

Background

The Impact Science Laboratory (led by PI Martinez-Guo) is currently developing experimental hyperveloc-ity impact capabilities up to 8 km/s and beyond to fill one of the most critical gaps at Purdue in terms of computational model validation. The proposed capability will focus on key areas of astronautics, planetary defense, and astro-materials development, such as:

 

  1. Validating material models and hypervelocity impact response for extreme conditions

    With NASA’s upcoming Dragonfly mission to Titan to explore the Selk crater, understanding the impact response of Ti-tan’s methane clathrate crust is paramount to mission success.
     
  2. Design of protective systems to mitigate hypervelocity impact damage

    Whipple shields are historically used for micro-meteoroid, orbital debris, and general hypervelocity impact protection, and advances in astro-materials and construction have improved their perfor-mance over the past decades.
     
  3. Kinetic asteroid deflector concepts for planetary defense applications

    Asteroid deflection to prevent catastrophic impact with Earth is a critical aspect of planetary defense, and is achieved via a complex momentum transfer interaction between the impactor geometry and the asteroid material properties.
     
  4. MMOD protection strategies for space habitat resilience

    With an increasing interest in building habitats for future space missions, mitigating MMOD damage on habitats’ construction materials is becoming a crucial issue. The hypervelocity capabilities will bring about unprecedented capabilities for large-scale testing of extraterrestrial habitats and novel astro-materials for resilient construction.

 

Roles and Responsibilities

The roles and responsibilities of the Apollo 11 Postdoctoral Fellow will be:

  1. Design an appropriate hypervelocity impact launcher and chamber based on mission requirements and integration with existing facilities
  2. Perform computational simulations using appropriate multiphysics or hydrocode packages (e.g., COMSOL, CTH etc.) to validate hypervelocity launcher and chamber safety design
  3. Implement relevant diagnostics and metrology methods for analysis, such as full-field high-speed imaging, velocimetry (e.g., Photon Doppler Velocimetry or Velocity Interferometer System for Any Reflector, VISAR), thermal imaging etc..
  4. Perform subsequent validation of computational simulations using abovementioned computational packages, or any relevant software (e.g., iSALE, CTH)

Affiliated Faculty

Assistant Professor Zherui Martinez-Guo
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University

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