Transcript No Slide Title

MAE GRADUATE SEMINAR SERIES
3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.; September 22, 2011
Carver/Turner – Havener Center
Heavens! What a Mess!
Dr. William P. Schonberg, P.E.
Professor and Chair
Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Department
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO
Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Abstract
All spacecraft that operate in low-earth-orbit (such as telecommunications satellites and the ISS) are
subject to high-speed impacts by space junk, which is also called ‘space debris’ or ‘orbital debris’.
The threat of damage from high-speed orbital debris particle impacts has become a significant
design consideration in the development and construction of long duration earth-orbiting spacecraft.
Even a marble-size piece of space debris can inflict considerable damage to or even destroy an
orbiting operational spacecraft or satellite. Considerable resources have been expended by NASA,
the Air Force, and their contractors to design and build spacecraft that can survive in the hostile
space environment and which can be protected from damage by pieces of space junk. During this
presentation a variety of topics related to space debris will be reviewed, including:
• Where does space debris come from?
• How much space junk is really out there?
• What happens when a spacecraft is hit by a piece of space junk?
• How can we protect a spacecraft against damage by space debris impacts?
• Is there any way to clean up the near earth region of space?
• Will the situation improve or worsen in the future?
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Dr. Schonberg has over 25 years teaching and research experience in the areas of shock physics,
spacecraft protection, hypervelocity impact, and penetration mechanics. He received his BSCE from
Princeton University in 1981, and his MS and PhD degrees from Northwestern University in 1983
and 1986, respectively. The results of his research have been applied to a wide variety of
engineering problems, including the development of orbital debris protection systems for spacecraft
in low earth orbit, kinetic energy weapons, the collapse of buildings under explosive loads,
insensitive munitions, and aging aircraft. He is a Fellow of ASCE and ASME, and an Associate
Fellow of the AIAA. In 2007 Dr. Schonberg received a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award
from the Humboldt Foundation in Germany. This award enabled him to spend 7 months at the
Fraunhofer Ernst Mach Institute in Freiburg, Germany working on advanced MMOD protection
systems for satellites and developing preliminary designs for safe lunar habitats using in-situ
materials for protection against meteoroid impacts. In recent years, Dr. Schonberg has served on
several NESC and NAE/NRC committees charged with reviewing a variety of key technical issues
related to NASA’s space exploration programs.
This seminar is co-sponsored by the Academy of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineers
.