Size scaling of crater size, ejecta mass, and momentum enhancement due to hypervelocity impacts into 2024-T4 and 2024-T351 aluminum

Momentum enhancement occurs when impactors strike objects at hypervelocities due to the formation of crater ejecta whose departure from the impact body impart more momentum to the impacted body. In previous work the momentum enhancement caused when metals, rock, and pumice were impacted have been examined [1-7]. Momentum enhancement is quantified by β, which is the ratio of the resulting target momentum by the impactor momentum. By quantifying momentum enhancement it is possible to make informed decisions about the use of hypervelocity impactors to deflect celestial bodies such as asteroids or comet nuclei.