detectors in low earth orbit

ABSTRACT On retrieval from Low Earth Orbit (LEO), the solar arrays from the European Retrievable Carrier(EuReCa) and one solararray wing of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) were inspected for micrometeoroid and space debris impact damage. 703and 814 impact sites respectively were analysed in detail. Interpretation of particle parameters from this large data set canyield a useful measurement of the micrometeoroid and debris flux in LEO. Due to similar orbital parameters, this thenprovides a flux measurement complimentary to those measured by the 'flmeband Capture Cell Experiment (TiCCE) of theEuReCa spacecraft and detectors and exposed surfaces on the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF).To allow comparison of data from the space retrieved solar cells to previous data, solar cell material, glass and aluminiumtargets were impacted for inter-calibration using the University of Kent's Light Gas Gun (LGG). An average of 20 impactsites on each target material per shot were measured. It was decided to consider only non-perforations of the 150 micronthick CMX cover glass, common to both EuReCa and HST solar cells. Trends in crater morphology of the laboratoryimpacts are discussed and compared to those from space impacts. The effects of impact angle and crater scaling with