The selection of materials for construction of long duration mission spacecraft has presented many challenges to the aerospace design community. After nearly six years in low earth orbit, NASA's Long duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), retrieved in January of 1990, has provided valuable information on both the nature of the space environment as well as the effects of the space environment on potential spacecraft materials. Composites, long a favorite of the design community because of a high strength-to-weight ratio, were flown in various configurations on LDEF in order to evaluate the effects of radiation, atomic oxygen, vacuum, micrometeoroid debris, and thermal variation on their performance. Fiberglass composite samples covered with an aluminum thermal control tape were flown as part of the flight experiment A0171, the Solar Array Materials Passive LDEF Experiment (SAMPLE). Visual observations and test results indicate that the thermal control tape suffered little degradation from the space exposure and proved to be a reliable source of protection from atomic oxygen erosion and UV radiation for the underlying composite material.
Performance of Thermal Control Tape in the Protection of Composite Materials
1992
10 pages
Report
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Unmanned Spacecraft , Coatings, Colorants, & Finishes , Long duration exposure facility , Temperature control , Composite materials , Earth orbital environments , Environmental tests , Performance tests , Spaceborne experiments , Tapes , Aluminum , Glass fibers , Micrometeoroids , Oxygen atoms , Radiation effects , Solar arrays , Space debris , Ultraviolet radiation , Vacuum , Visual observation
THERMAL CONTROL TAPE, THERMAL CONTROL TAPE SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR SPACECRAFT STRUCTURE
Europäisches Patentamt | 2019
|Control technology of composite tape winding pressure
Online Contents | 2014
|