Abstract:
Spacecraft breakup model is used to describe the distributions of number,size,are-a-to-mass ratio and velocity increment of debris produced in spacecraft fragmentation due to ex-plosion or impact.It is important for space debris environment modeling,impact risk assessment and emergency breakup events analysis.The basic forms and features of NASA standard breakup model which is widely used currently are introduced.The shortcomings of this model revealed in typical satellite impact events are analyzed.The main research advances on spacecraft breakup modeling aimed to improve and revise the current model in recent years are introduced.These re-search advances include the small satellite impact tests conducted by Kyushu University,the cube satellite impact tests and numerical simulations performed by Ernst-Mach Institute,and NASA’ s new satellite impact project started in 2011,in which a high fidelity satellite named DebrisSat will be manufactured and impacted.The spacecraft breakup model in China is focused on the studies performed by China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center (CARDC).A series impact tests of simulated satellites in different size and mass are conducted and numerical analysis for more than twenty fragmentation cases are finished.A new spacecraft impact breakup model named CARDC-SBM is constructed based on these test and numerical results.The differences be-tween CARDC-SBM model and NASA standard breakup model are presented in this paper.The problems and disadvantages in these current breakup model studies are analyzed,then the future research focused,such as the effect of impact conditions and the influence of different space mate-rials,is indicated.