Micro-debris evolution from a satellite collision

A hydrocode is used to model the expulsion of debris, down to micron sized particles, from a hypervelocity collision of a satellite at 7 km/s. Large numbers of such particles (>; 10¹² total) are released, with large relative velocities (100 to 1000 m/s) to the original impactors, and involving complex spatial patterns such as jets of material. The orbital evolution of the small particles, taking into account higher order gravity terms, Solar and lunar gravity, molecular drag, solar pressure, and Lorentz forces, is integrated out for 9000 seconds. A measure of cratering damage on a collection of 929 space resident objects is used to determine whether this cloud disperses quickly, or if it represents an immediate threat to satellite health. In this simulation, the fast dispersion of the cloud results in a minimal damage to other satellites from the micro-debris. This result argues that there is little utility to computing an early warning for micro-debris damage from a satellite collisions.