Vacuum Effect on Spacecraft Structure Materials

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Egyptian Armed Forces.

2 Researcher, Sapienza University of Rome.

3 Professor, National institute for Standards.

4 Professor, Sapienza University of Rome.

5 Researcher,National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Science.

Abstract

In the vacuum deep space, outgassing has contributed to degraded mechanical performance of composite materials used in spacecraft. Three types of polymer based material we concerned on this study epoxy resin with carbon fiber, glass fiber, and Kevlar, which manufactured by hand lay-up method without autoclave curing which is a commercial method with low cost production. These materials have been widely used in satellite structures. The forth material is polyamide which is a commercial thin sheet layer used in multilayer insulation for spacecraft protection against space environment. The advantages of these materials considered as their high specific stiffness, near–zero coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) and dimensional stabilities make them uniquely suited for applications in low specific weight environment.
The materials screening and selection will be discussed according to the total mass loss, the dimensions stability, and collected volatile condensed materials resulted from outgassing test for the different materials types.

Keywords

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics