INSTRUMENTATION FOR HYPERVELOCITY PARTICLE IMPACTS

THE PROPOSED PHASE I PROGRAM WILL PRODUCE A DESIGN OF A HOLOGRAPHIC SYSTEM TO MEASURE THE LOCATION, CROSS-SECTIONS AND THE VELOCITIES OF PARTICLES VIA DOUBLE EXPOSURE. THIS HOLOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUE HAS ALREADY BEEN DEMONSTRATED IN THE ORDNANCE VELOCITY REGINE AND IS READY FOR APPLICATION FO HYPERVELOCITY KINETIC ENERGY AND ORBITAL DEBRIS EXPERIMENTS. PHYSICAL SCIENCES INC AND THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA IN HUNTSVILLE ARE A COMPLIMENTARY TEAM IN THE AREA OF DIAGNOSTICS, BALLISTIC RANGE CAPABILITIES, EXPERIMENTAL PLANNING OF HYPER-VELOCITY EXPERIMENTS, AND DATA REDUCTION AND ANALYSIS. THE RESULTS OF THE PHASE I DESIGN EFFORT WILL BE IMPLEMENTED IN THE PHASE II PROGRAM. THE DESIGN ENVISIONS AN IMPACT FLASH TRIGGERED AND DELAYED DOUBLE PULSE HOLOGRAPHIC CAPTURE OF THE DEBRIS FIELD. MULTIPLE PARTICLE IMPACTS CAN BE STUDIED BY THE SUITABLE DELAY AND PULSING OF THE LASER SYSTEM AS WELL AS THE ABILITY OF THE HOLOGRAPHIC PROCESS TO DISCERN THE PRECISE LOCATION OF THE FRAGMENTS.