Light Weight Space Support Structures

Depending on the load bearing requirements of a structure, a simple thin film may not be adequate. Since fibers have at least an order of magnitude more strength, and very low elongation, along their axis than fil materials a fiber reinforced structure is necessary in situations which involve heavy loads exposed to gravity, or massive loads undergoing accelerations or decelerations.For space applications, an zed structure ucture that can support the design load rements two components are needed for an optimized structure. A thin film, which serves as a vapor/gas impermeable inflation layer and an outer fiber based restraining layer.Federal Fabrics-Fibers, Inc. (FFF) produces all sorts of shaped and sized inflatable structures. FFF makes seamless tubes with diameters from 4 to 54 inches and lengths up to 100m. These tubes are woven unsing a proprietary CAD/CAM method. FFF can also produce seamless spheres, arches, circular and elliptic torus and coils. With slight alterations complex surfaces such as parabolas can be produced. Rigid and semi rigid components may be employed to link individual components together to produce complex structures. The structures can be used as booms, solar-array, sun shade, solar concentrator, planar array and reflector antenna supports. Finally these structures are versatile in that they can be used in terrestrial, vacuum, lunar or Martian applications.