Abstract: Method and appartus are provided for mitigating orbital debris by using a collision medium to promote hyper-velocity collisions with orbital debris, and to trap any debris remaining after said collision in a manner whereby the remaining debris is retrievable. In a first embodiment, the collision medium comprises streams of liquid droplets which are directed proximate the interior of an intake cone (30) toward a collector (34). As hyper-velocity orbital debris collides with the stream or droplets comprising the collision medium, the orbital debris is substantially vaporized. The stream further serves to entrain any residual debris remaining after the collision, and to usher the residual debris to the collector (34) wherein both the stream and the residual debris are collected. In another embodiment, the collision medium comprises a plurality of filaments (430, 434, 436, 438) mounted on a substrate (414).

Abstract: An integrating sphere (10) comprised of a uniform diffusely reflecting spherical cavity (24) having mutually transverse input and output ports (42, 46) and a linear sample transport mechanism (12) secured thereto so that the multiple samples (136) can be brought into registration with the input port, one at a time, without having to open or disassemble the apparatus when a change of a sample (136) is desired. A vacuum tight seal (72) is provided between the cavity (24) and transport mechanism (12) for maintaining the integrity of a vacuum generated within the sphere when attached to source of optical energy. The device is utilized, for example, to test the emissive characteristic such as the relative fluorescence quantum efficiency of a dye sample placed in the path of a monochromatic optical energy source coupled to the input port (42) while having a light detector coupled to the output port (46).