Beta cloth performance for use on long-term space vehicles such as Space Station Freedom (S.S. Freedom) requires resistance to the degrading effects of the space environment. The major issues are retention of thermal insulating properties through maintaining optical properties, preserving mechanical integrity, and generating minimal particulates for contamination-sensitive spacecraft surfaces and payloads. The longest in-flight test of beta cloth's durability was on the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), where it was exposed to the space environment for 68 months. The LDEF contained 57 experiments which further defined the space environment and its effects on spacecraft materials. It was deployed into low-Earth orbit (LEO) in Apr. 1984 and retrieved Jan. 1990 by the space shuttle. Among the 10,000 plus material constituents and samples onboard were thermal control blankets of multilayer insulation with a beta cloth outer cover and Velcro attachments. These blankets were exposed to hard vacuum, thermal cycling, charged particles, meteoroid/debris impacts, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and atomic oxygen (AO). Of these space environmental exposure elements, AO appears to have had the greatest effect on the beta cloth. The beta cloth analyzed in this report came from the MSFC Experiment S1005 (Transverse Flat-Plate Heat Pipe) tray oriented approximately 22 deg from the leading edge vector of the LDEF satellite. The location of the tray on LDEF and the placement of the beta cloth thermal blankets are shown. The specific space environment exposure conditions for this material are listed.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Space environment durability of beta cloth in LDEF thermal blankets


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    1993-12-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Space Environment Durability of Beta Cloth in LDEF Thermal Blankets

    Linton, R. C. / Whitaker, A. F. / Finckenor, M. M. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1994


    Space Environment Durability of beta Cloth in LDEF Thermal Blankets

    R. C. Linton / A. F. Whitaker / M. M. Finckenor | NTIS | 1993


    Experimental Impacts into Teflon Targets and LDEF Thermal Blankets

    Hoerz, F. / Cintala, M. J. / Zolensky, M. E. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1994


    Experimental Impacts into Teflon Targets and LDEF Thermal Blankets

    Hoerz, F. / Cintala, M. J. / Zolensky, M. E. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1994


    Penetration Data From the LDEF UHCRE Thermal Blankets: Reduction to Incident Mass Distributions

    Mullen, S. / University of Kent at Canterbury; Unit for Space Sciences | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1992