The primary charter of the HITF is to support space programs by researching and developing meteoroid and orbital debris impact protection systems for NASA and other commercial spacecraft. The HITF supports this initiative by operating three light-gas gun ranges and associated diagnostics. The HITF also provides state of the art post-test analysis capabilities.

The testing capability of the HITF, provided by the 3 light-gas gun ranges, allow for 100 micron aluminum balls up to a 10 mm aluminum balls, to be launched at velocities ranging from below 2 km/s to over 7 km/s. The diagnostics for the HVI testing consist mostly of flash x-ray systems and ultra-high speed cameras. The ranges are also equipped with light flash photo-detectors and laser intervalometers, all of which allow for the projectile velocity to be determined.

The ranges use Cordin camera systems, which are capable of framing rates of up to 2.25 million frames per second using standard Kodak IR film cassettes. The camera is a rotating mirror system which exposes each frame of a static circular roll of film for a few microseconds. The mirror is driven by a turbine powered by compressed nitrogen or helium.

The .50 caliber range presently incorporates a 300 kV HP model 43733A and a 150 kV HP model 43731A flash x-ray system. The 300 kV head is used to obtain orthogonal soft x-rays of the target, projectile, and/or debris plume. The 150 kV head utilizes three stations to obtain sabot separation information, projectile integrity data, and projectile velocity.

The analysis support provided by the HITF performs several functions including:

• post-impact analysis of experimental HVI test data produced with the HITF ranges
• numerical and analytical simulations to predict impact response beyond experimental test conditions (hydrocodes)
• risk and damage assessments for spacecraft exposed to the meteoroid and orbital debris environments (notably Station, Shuttle, Mir, and EVA)