Originally Posted by Hondo6

Sounds like they ended up using something akin to Whipple sheilds and/or improved versions of same. That would have been my guess as to the next step beyond a sacrificial outer layer (or maybe in place of same). Makes sense.

Your dad apparently did a good job. As I recall, Galileo lasted well beyond its design lifetime and ended up being intentionally de-orbited into Juipter's atmosphere.

Not downplaying concerns about space debris. My understanding is that it's definitely a concern during launch and while in earth orbit. We (mankind) have put up a lot of "junk" that remains in orbit hazarding anything launched. But I also understand that threat goes way down once you get out of the vicinity of the Earth.

Still: there's a limit to what can be done in the way of providing protection for, well, anything if you want the resulting item to be usable. Some very low-probability risks simply have to be accepted because avoiding them entirely and/or protecting against same just isn't feasible.