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Butterflies and Spacecraft

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Oodain
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12 Nov 2011, 9:06 am

carbon nanotubes are getting cheaper by the minute,

many hundreds of times stronger than kevlar.


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Sunshine7
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15 Nov 2011, 3:21 pm

The lead hull protects against alpha and beta particles, not EM waves. You may be confusing ionizing radiation of free particles, with (non-ionizing) radiation, the propagation of energy waves through matter.



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15 Nov 2011, 11:40 pm

ruveyn wrote:
shrox wrote:
You'd still need protection against micro meteoroids. Fabrics are turning out to be rather useful for this.


Space Kevlar?

ruveyn


Flexible layers rather a solid block of hardness seems to work well in tests.



Oodain
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16 Nov 2011, 10:31 am

wasnt there someone that invented self healing thermoplastics for that exact purpose?

the layers would encapsulate most meteroids and close the holes of those that went through, maybe combine this with nanotube cloth (carbon nanofiber cloth a tenth of the thickness of human hair can stop a 50. cal theoretically, would love to see the test)


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shrox
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16 Nov 2011, 1:57 pm

Oodain wrote:
wasnt there someone that invented self healing thermoplastics for that exact purpose?

the layers would encapsulate most meteroids and close the holes of those that went through, maybe combine this with nanotube cloth (carbon nanofiber cloth a tenth of the thickness of human hair can stop a 50. cal theoretically, would love to see the test)


These things are moving at 48 miles (80km) per second. The flexible layers absorb the energy rather than expend it. A hard barrier can cause shrapnel inside of the ship from the impact point, even if there is no penetration.