Modeling Micrometeoroid Survival During Atmospheric Entry

This paper presents a reduced threshold model for the thermal survival boundary of spherical micrometeoroids entering Earth's atmosphere. The model incorporates various physical processes, including free molecular drag, exponential atmosphere, projected-area heating, full-sphere radiative cooling, and a surplus-heat ablation rule at the melting temperature. The switching surface representing the melting temperature is treated as a Filippov/complementarity surface. The authors derive an exact radius-loss identity and a perturbative stability estimate. They also formulate the inverse problem through a transfer matrix, analyzing the information lost when only surviving particles are observed. The framework provides a compact analytical description of threshold entry survival and identifies the limitations of observing only surviving particles. This research contributes to a better understanding of micrometeoroid behavior during atmospheric entry and has implications for spacecraft safety and the study of extraterrestrial material delivery to Earth.

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