Hypervelocity impacts of high pressure/high density plasma pulses on metallic surfaces

At the Lehrstuhl fur Raumfahrttechnik (LRT) of the Technical University at Munich (TUM) various types of electrothermal and electromagnetic launchers have been developed to simulate micrometeoroid and space debris impacts. This paper describes both, the generation of specific Hypervelocity Plasma Pulses (HPP) by using these launchers and the interaction of these HPP with metallic targets. The paper deals with the analysis of characteristic parameters of the HPP and describes the current experimental evaluation of the impact of the HPP on the metallic target. The resulting changes of the structure and the composition of the surface layer of the metallic target are also described.