Monolithic Highly Porous Aluminum Deployable Micrometeoroid Impact Shields

McMurchie Engineering, LLC proposes to investigate the performance of additively manufactured very high porosity aluminum as a monolithic shielding material, to be printed as panels and deployed around the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) in a quasi-cylindrical form. These panels will be structurally sound to the point of being able to support not only their own mass, but also other key systems like thermal insulation. The panel design is itself an excellent insulator and is easily adaptable to match the range of micrometeoroid sizes and fluxes expected at Earth-Sun L2. Over the course of this Phase I SBIR we will print several varieties of this highly porous aluminum shielding material and directly compare its impact shielding performance to conventional Whipple shields using a light gas gun shooting 2mm diameter projectiles at velocities up to 6km/s.