| Effects of micro-meteoroid impacts on proposed solar sail thin films materials were investigated in this thesis. Two of the most popular candidate sail materials, aluminized Teonex and aluminized Mylar, were used. These materials were subjected to 0 psi, 5 psi and 10 psi tensile stresses, and impacted with a 1 mm spherical projectile at 7 km/s. When this testing was complete, the data was plotted to determine which material performed better. These tests were also compared to previously irradiated material impact test data to find which initial condition would yield more impact damage to the material. The trend was that aluminized Teonex demonstrated less damage. It was also found that irradiated sail material suffered significantly more impact damage than tensioned materials.; Additional metals and polymers of varying thicknesses were tested. The results exhibited that penetration diameter data of both metals and polymers fell on the same trend line, implying that material properties have no effect on damage on thin film materials. |
