The Whipple Shield, also known as a meteor deflection screen, was invented by Fred Whipple and is designed to protect spacecraft from collisions with small particles during high speed flight. The shield acts much like an umbrella, effectively disintegrating the particles before they threaten the spacecraft's main body.

The Whipple Shield protects the spacecraft by disrupting particles as they impact a solid metal surface. The smaller resulting particles are then dispersed, which greatly reduces their kinetic energy and minimizes the threat they pose to the spacecraft's main body.