Whipple shield

Whipple shield used on NASA's Stardust probe

The Whipple shield or Whipple bumper, invented by Fred Whipple,[1] is a type of spaced armor shielding to protect crewed and uncrewed spacecraft from hypervelocity impact / collisions with micrometeoroids and orbital debris whose velocities generally range between 3 and 18 kilometres per second (1.9 and 11.2 mi/s). According to NASA, the Whipple shield is designed to withstand collisions with debris up to 1 cm.[2]

  1. ^ Whipple, Fred L. (1947), "Meteorites and Space Travel", Astronomical Journal, 52: 131, Bibcode:1947AJ.....52Q.131W, doi:10.1086/106009.
  2. ^ "STARDUST Whipple Shield".