Question: Suppose you were required to use a micrometeorite shield no more than 0.01 meters thick. What would be the required toughness of the material from

Suppose you were required to use a micrometeorite shield no more than 0.01 meters thick. What would be the required toughness of the material from which that shield was made if the shield must survive a micrometeorite strike without being permanently dented or damaged?


Involve the situation depicted below. Consider a “micrometeorite” to be a piece of mineral that is approximately a sphere of diameter 1.0 × 10-6 m and of density 2.0 × 103 kg/m3. It travels through outer space at a speed of 5.0 × 103 m/s relative to a spacecraft. Your job as an engineer is to provide a micrometeorite shield for the spacecraft. Assume that if the micrometeorite strikes the shield, it affects only a volume of the shield 1.0 × 10-6 m in diameter and extending through the entire thickness of the shield.

Shield Diameter = 1 micron Portion of shield affected by the micrometeorite is a cylinder with the same diameter as Micrometeorite the micrometeorite - Thickness, T

Shield Diameter = 1 micron Portion of shield affected by the micrometeorite is a cylinder with the same diameter as Micrometeorite the micrometeorite - Thickness, T

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