Digital Twin Application in Ground Simulating Space Debris System With Laser-Driven Flyer Technology

In recent years, with the continuous development of spacecraft, the demand for experimental and analytical simulation of space debris impact is increasing. Therefore, the simulation of space debris technology such as laser-driven flyer (LDF) is becoming increasingly strategic. However, in traditional LDF experiments, the experimental environment is difficult to control and the number of experiments is constrained by cost, resulting in only a small amount of valid data available. This makes it difficult to evaluate the sample damage. In this paper, thus, a method of LDF digital twinning with two phases and its experimental equipment is proposed. During the experimental phase, it provides a standardized experimental environment, while its experimental equipment facilitates automated, remote experiments and virtual training. In the evaluation phase, it is possible to use neural networks to enrich a small amount of experimental data into high-throughput data containing physical damage parameters, and finite element simulation to obtain microscopic damage processes and related data. Both methods have been validated by additional experiments, and the average error rate is 8.13% for the neural network and 3.1% for the simulation, using the fragmentation zone diameter as the predicted object. Again, both of these are much smaller than the 10% error rate, which is defined by the analysis of the experimental data. In addition, this paper proposes a full-cycle experimental path that is more compact, saves experimental costs, and reduces experimental cycle time compared with the traditional experimental path.