551results about "Cosmonautic thermal protection" patented technology

A protective polymeric coating is applied to the surface of various objects which are to be exposed to a harsh environment. The protective polymeric coating covers the exposed surface, where the polymeric coating includes a polyimide polymer. The polyimide polymer in the polymeric coating has a backbone with at least one non-terminal phenyl group. A linkage is connected to the non-terminal phenyl group, where the linkage can be an amide linkage or an ester linkage. An oligomeric silsesquioxane compound is connected to the linkage through an organic substituent, where the oligomeric silsesquioxane is not incorporated into the polymer backbone. The polymeric coating provides protection to the underlying object.

An apparatus for heat shielding and deceleration of a spacecraft comprises an unfoldable shield of individual panels made of a high temperature resistant fiber reinforced ceramic and pivotally mounted on the outer structure of the spacecraft. An unfolding ring slides axially along the body of the spacecraft. The panels are pivotally connected to the unfolding ring by compression struts acting as toggle levers. Tension springs pull the unfolding ring axially along the spacecraft body to toggle out the compression struts so as to outwardly pivotally deploy the panels. The unfoldable shield can be arranged on the forward end or the rear end of the spacecraft relative to its flight direction upon entry into the atmosphere.

A seal assembly is configured to seal a tile gap between a pair of tiles. Each of the tiles may include a tile side surface. At least one of the tiles may include a groove which may be formed along a length of the tile side surface. The seal assembly may comprise a gasket assembly including first and second bulb portions which may be interconnected by a web. A spacer rope may be positionable along the web. The gasket assembly may define a folded configuration for mounting within the tile gap when the web is wrapped around the spacer rope such that the second bulb portion is positioned between the spacer rope and the first bulb portion. The second bulb portion may be receivable within the groove.

A high temperature sealing system is operative to seal an interface between adjacent hot structures and to minimize parasitic flow between such structures that move relative to one another in-plane or out-of-plane. The sealing system may be used to seal thrust-directing ramp structures of a reusable launch vehicle and includes a channel and a plurality of movable segmented sealing elements. Adjacent ramp structures include edge walls which extend within the channel. The sealing elements are positioned along the sides of the channel and are biased to engage with the inner surfaces of the ramp structures. The segmented sealing elements are movable to correspond to the contour of the thrust-directing ramp structures. The sealing system is operative to prevent high temperature thrust gases that flow along the ramp structures from infiltrating into the interior of the vehicle.

A spacecraft is provided. The spacecraft comprises a plurality of heat generating electrical components. A first thermal radiator panel and a second thermal radiator panel are provided on the spacecraft, each panel being thermally coupled to the heat generating electrical components. Heat pipes are also provided. At least one first heat pipe is externally attached to the first thermal radiator panel and at least one second heat pipe is externally attached to the second thermal radiator panel. The at least one first heat pipe is thermally coupled to the at least one second heat pipe.

Provided is an ablation-resistant lightweight integrated composite material with a thermal insulation function. The composite material is of a sandwich structure, the middle layer adopts a chopped fiber as a reinforcing body, phenolic resin as a substrate and hollow microbeads as thermal insulation fillers, upper and lower surface layers are bonded to each other by a fiber cloth pre-impregnation material, and the three layers are cured to improve the bearing capacity and the anti-scouring capacity. The preparation method of the composite material comprises eight steps including ceramic powdertreatment, pretreatment of the chopped fiber and a fiber cloth, mixing, drying, slurry preparation, brushing or impregnation, mold filling, curing formation and demolding. The composite material can be applied to the ablation working condition of medium and low heat flux density; the composite material is formed at one time, so that the preparation cycle is short, and the cost is low; a stable ablation-resistant ceramic layer can be formed on the surface in a temperature range from 800 DEG C to 1,300 DEG C, and meanwhile, low-density fillers such as the hollow microspheres achieve a thermal insulation function. In this way, the integrated thermal insulation function under the conditions of medium and low heat flux density and oxidation is achieved.

A thermal protection system suitable as a heat shield for a space vehicle includes a flexible insulation mat that is adhesively bonded onto the outer skin of the space vehicle, a cover layer made of at least one ply of a ceramic fiber composite material secured onto the insulation mat, and a coating of an inorganic material applied onto an outer surface of the ceramic cover layer. The cover layer is secured to the insulation mat by adhesive bonding, stitching with ceramic threads or the like, or by a snap fastener button connection. The ceramic fiber composite materials of the cover layer include inorganic fibers which are preferably oxides, carbides or mixtures thereof embedded in a matrix of the same compositional components, whereby the components can be selected appropriately depending on the requirements of the particular application. The overall thermal protection system remains flexible, lightweight, and highly effective for thermal shielding, so that it may be used not only on the relatively cooler portions of the space vehicle, but also on the most highly thermally loaded areas such as the nose and the leading edges of wings and the like.

A system for emergency crew return and down-mass orbit comprising a stowable, self-contained, deployable maneuvering reentry vehicle for automated, on-demand reentry to ground for cargo of 1-10 kilograms or up to single or multiple human use for evacuation of orbital facilities. The system includes a deployable “aeroshell” that is contiguous (a single geometric object—surface or hollow shape—that can morph in 3D shape), modular (a collection of modular components externally acting as a contiguous shape, but morphed in 3D via actuators contained in each modular member to create a general asymmetric geometry), or discontiguous (a collection of independently controlled surfaces or bodies that morph to form desirable asymmetric drag configurations). The system contains traditional spacecraft guidance, navigation and control, propulsion, and attitude control elements, in addition to communications, power, and actuator energetics systems for controlling the vehicle aeroshell shape during reentry, thus, minimizing the landing footprint of the vehicle.

The invention provides an ultra-high speed aircraft thermal protection and drag reduction method and system. The method includes that a cold source is arranged inside the cavity of an ultra-high speed aircraft, a plurality of micropores are arranged in the wall surface of the cavity, and the cold source is ejected out of the micropores in a high-pressure air state under the action of driving force to form an air film on the outer surface of the cavity. The air film can perform thermal protection on the ultra-high speed aircraft, viscous drag of the aircraft with external air can be effectively reduced, thermal barrier is favorably alleviated or eliminated, security of the ultra-high speed aircraft is improved, service life is prolonged, and a good application prospect is achieved. A cold source driving unit comprising an air pump, a cold source storer and a buffer is adopted in the system, the air pump supplies compressed air to the cold source storer during the operation state, the cold source enters the buffer to be vaporized under the action of air pressure, and the air is ejected from the micropores to form the air film under the action of pressure.

The invention relates to a method for preparing heat insulation tiles of a shuttle, which is mainly used in heat insulation of shuttles and aircraft heat insulation protecting field such as other aerospace, aviation, guided missile and the like, belonging to the special technical field. The method comprises the steps of matrix batching, shaping, sintering and implementing coating, and the matrix batching is prepared from the following components by weight percent: 50-95% of fused quartz glass fiber, 5-50% of alumina fiber, 0-5% of boron nitride and 0-3% of matrix assistant. The heat insulation tile in the invention has the advantages of high-temperature resistance, high strength, low density, low heat conduction and fine heat insulation effect.

Tantalum-based ceramics are suitable for use in thermal protection systems. These composite structures have high efficiency surfaces (low catalytic efficiency and high emittance), thereby reducing heat flux to a spacecraft during planetary re-entry. These ceramics contain tantalum disilicide, molybdenum disilicide and borosilicate glass. The components are milled, along with a processing aid, then applied to a surface of a porous substrate, such as a fibrous silica or carbon substrate. Following application, the coating is then sintered on the substrate. The composite structure is substantially impervious to hot gas penetration and capable of surviving high heat fluxes at temperatures approaching 3000° F. and above.

A high heat-resistant member includes a graphite substrate including isotropic graphite and a carbide coating film including a carbide, such as tantalum carbide, and covering a surface of the graphite substrate, the carbide coating film having a randomly oriented isotropic grain structure in which crystallites having a size indexed by a full width at half maximum of a diffraction peak of an X-ray diffraction spectrum of not more than 0.2° from (111) planes are accumulated at substantially random. The orientation of the carbide coating film is determined by whether degree of orientation (F) in any Miller plane calculated based on an XRD spectrum using the Lotgering method is within a range from −0.2 to 0.2.

A thermal protection system for use upon an air or space vehicle includes a plurality of thermal protection panels formed of a suitable ceramic matrix composition or other thermally protective material each panel having a continuous outer surface free of penetrations or apertures. A plurality of cooperating fasteners are secured between the outer surface of a host vehicle and the undersurface of the thermal protection panels. The fasteners utilize a latching mechanism to secure the panels to the surface of the host air or space vehicle without requiring penetrations or irregularities in the panel surfaces.

A spacecraft instrument thermal control method and system providing scalable thermal control of on-board instrument temperature. Adapted for a spacecraft with bus supporting instrumentation and thermal radiator panels, cooling is carried out by one or more active coolers, such as cryocoolers, each mounted to the spacecraft at a radiator spatially separated from the instrument, with cold side of the cooler being thermally coupled to an instrument focal plane or other instrument location requiring cryogenic cooling and the warm side coupled to the radiator. A closed loop temperature control system measures the temperature of the controlled portion of the instrument, and adjusts active cooler drive signals to maintain a specified set point temperature.

One object of the present invention is to realize a heat discharger having a high precision and in which heat conduction efficiency is maintained at the bonding between the heat pipe and heat sink. A heat discharger comprises a heat pipe and a heat sink formed separately from the heat pipe and bonded to the heat pipe via solder. The contact surface portion between the heat pipe and the solder and the contact surface portion between the heat sink and the solder are made of a wettable material having a wettablility such that the contacting angle with respect to the solder is 90 degrees or less.

A self-transpiring hot skin for a hypersonic or reusable space vehicle that can provide protection to the vehicle during short periods of abnormally high heat flux (either planned in the flight profile or an off-nominal event). The hot skin includes a ceramic composite structure having an internal cavity that is coupled either to the insulating layer or directly to the support structure of the hypersonic vehicle. The internal cavity includes a material system that vaporizes, sublimes or decomposes into a gas when the temperature exceeds the upper temperature capability of the composite material. The gas transpires through the outer layer of the composite material to provide cooling to the outer layer below the upper temperature capability. Cooling may occur both by conduction of heat from the composite material to the transpiring gas and by the interaction of the transpiring gas with the boundary layer of hypersonic flow over the outer surface, leading to a reduction of the heat flux entering the surface.

The invention relates to a space probe (1) that comprises a descent module with a mobile exploration vehicle (3), characterised in that the descent module is a landing module (2) inside which the mobile exploration vehicle is fastened, the landing module being provided with landing legs (4) which can be deployed under the lower level of the mobile exploration vehicle.

A geostationary earth orbit (GEO) spacecraft is disclosed that includes a body with north, east, south, and west sides and a north-south axis. The spacecraft has at least one deployable radiator rotatably coupled to the body. The deployable radiator has a stowed position proximate to one of the east and west sides and a deployed position that is greater than 90 degrees from the north-south axis in a direction away from the respective one of the east and west sides.

A composite heat shield includes a ceramic composite heat shield body comprising a pair of generally spaced-apart heat shield side panels, a heat shield bottom panel extending between the heat shield side panels and having a heat exposure surface, a heat shield top panel extending between the heat shield side panels in spaced-apart relationship with respect to the heat shield bottom panel and having at least one heat shield surface and at least one heat shield cavity defined between the heat shield bottom panel and the heat shield top panel.

The invention discloses a composite heat-proof layer scheme for a spacecraft reentry body, belonging to the technical field of spacecraft heat protection. The purpose of the utility model is to provide a novel composite structure heat-proof layer capable of coping with severe heat environment. The technical scheme is as follows: a composite heat-proof layer for a spacecraft reentry body, which is characterized in that it is composed of a heat-insulating layer and an ablation layer, and the ablation layer is formed by winding fiber reinforced material impregnated with phenolic resin. A method for forming a heat-resistant layer of a composite structure, which is characterized in that it includes the following steps: forming the heat-insulating layer, compounding the formed heat-insulating layer with an ablation layer, curing the formed composite-structured heat-resistant layer under high temperature pressure, and machining forming. It achieves the purpose of reducing the thermal conductivity and temperature conductivity of the heat-resistant component. The component is light in weight and has excellent performance, which can meet the requirements for improving the heat-resistant performance of various spacecraft reentry bodies at present, and is suitable for industrial production.

A planar two material structure comprising a first material having a coefficient of thermal expansion greater than zero and a second material having a second coefficient of thermal expansion greater than zero. The two materials structurally combined in a plurality of repetitive for or six sided unit cells having a combined coefficient of thermal expansion less than the coefficient of thermal expansion of either material alone.

A deployable aerodynamic decelerator structure includes a ring member disposed along a central axis of the aerodynamic decelerator, a plurality of jointed rib members extending radially from the ring member and a flexible layer attached to the plurality of rib members. A deployment device is operable to reconfigure the flexible layer from a stowed configuration to a deployed configuration by movement of the rib members and a control device is operable to redirect a lift vector of the decelerator structure by changing an orientation of the flexible layer.

A high capacity satellite having multiple aspect ratios is configured to have at least two modules. Each module includes a first panel and a third panel facing, in an on-orbit configuration, respectively, toward north and south and having a width in an east-west direction (EW width); and a second and a fourth panel oriented, in the on-orbit configuration, respectively, east and west and having a width in the north-south direction (NS width). Each module has a respective aspect ratio of EW width to NS width, a first module is configured with a first aspect ratio, a second module is configured with a second aspect ratio; and the second aspect ratio is substantially larger than the first aspect ratio. At least one antenna reflector is disposed, during launch, proximate to at least one of the first and third panel of the second module.