A Rotation Scheme for Accurately Computing Meteoroid Flux

Accurately estimating meteoroid flux helps analyze the risk of collisions while spacecraft move in interplanetary space. Currently, NASA uses the Meteoroid Engineering Model (MEM) to estimate meteoroid flux and the Bumper-ii code to evaluate damage to a spacecraft structure. To help the Bumper algorithm evaluate potential damage, we develop a rotation scheme that converts meteoroid flux information from the reference frame used in the Meteoroid Engineering Model to Bumper’s reference frame as a spacecraft rotates in space. Using randomly generated data, we show our average accuracy can be at least 98.6%.