In-situ measurement of ejecta using flash x-ray

Space debris is increasing by development of the space environment. The impact of space debris with the International Space Station is considered to be questionable. The model of the space environment is made as one example of the measures. However, the modeling error of the ejecta has been focused recently. It is necessary to do the evaluation examination of ejecta. As for the examination, the size and the depth of crater on a witness plate, and size and velocity distribution of ejecta are measured and evaluated. The distribution of velocity can be measured from tracking fragments using pictures obtained with X-rays. In the measurement of velocity distribution, three flash X-ray tubes are used because two or more pictures are required for measurement of the three-dimensional distributions of space and velocity. However, identification of fragments was difficult in this method because the images irradiated by the different flash X-ray tubes are used for the identification. In this study, we design and develop double anode X-ray tube with different discharging paths so that it can make two irradiations in a short interval. We conduct experiments using the double anode X-ray tube in order to evaluate the performance of the double exposure system.