Inflation and Peel-off Characteristics of MLI Blanket under Depressurization Environment

Development and testing of a zero stitch MLI blanket using plastic pins for space use

“…8. The general trendwhereby inflation and differential pressure peak at relatively low pressure levels -is equivalent to that of traditional MLI as reported in the previous paper (12) . Tag-pins suppress inflation of the blanket and are tensed with a tensile force proportional to the differential pressure between the inside and outside of the blanket.…”

“…Accordingly, a depressurization test is performed to confirm compliance with environmental conditions prior to the thermal performance test. Figure 5 shows a schematic of the depressurization facility, with details of the test setup and procedure introduced in the previous paper (12) . The pressure profile is controlled by the open-looped voltage control of an electric valve.…”

“…Concerning compliance with the depressurization environment during launch, sufficient knowledge exists of the appropriate perforation specifications for traditional 12-layer MLI blankets (12) , but there is no information on zero-stitch MLI blankets. Accordingly, a depressurization test is performed to confirm compliance with environmental conditions prior to the thermal performance test.…”