An investigation was made to predict whether a hollow aluminized-plastic sphere in a terrestrial orbit at about 1000 miles altitude would be easily visible to the naked eye, would be a good reflector of radar waves, would be protected from deterioration of the plastic by ultraviolet radiation, and would assume acceptable extremes of temperature. It was found that a 2200 A thick coating of vapor-deposited aluminum on 1/4-mil-thick mylar forming a 100-ft-diam sphere would probably meet all requirements regarding radiation as well as a maximum weight limit of about 100 lb.
Design Characteristics of Inflatable Aluminized-Plastic Spherical Earth Satellites With Respect to Ultraviolet, Visible, Infrared and Radar Radiation
1958
9 pages
Report
No indication
English
Unmanned Spacecraft , Optics & Lasers , Radiation protection , Artificial satellites , Altitude , Aluminum , Coatings , Deterioration , Orbits , Plastics , Radar , Reflectors , Requirements , Spheres , Temperature , Ultraviolet radiation , Vapor deposition , Infrared radiation , Radar radiation , Visible radiation
Earth reflected solar radiation input to spherical satellites
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