抄録
Ceramic materials have been a promising candidate for structural materials under severe conditions. While metals are large components of spacecraft, ceramic materials are often significant components of optical and thermal protection systems of space structures. Because these ceramic materials are much more sensitive to hypervelocity impact than metals, it is important to verify their reliability against the impact of space debris and micrometeoroids. In this article, two studies which are conducted to investigate the damage behavior of ceramic materials subjected to hypervelocity impact are described. First one is the impact-damage evaluation on silicon nitride ceramics which is used for a new advanced ceramic thruster. Second one is the high-speed imaging of impact damage evolution in SiO2 glass which is the primal optical material of space structures.
