Current spacecraft designs include materials and structural systems engineered to satisfy a variety of requirements, including structural integrity, damage tolerance, radiation protection, debris/micrometeoroid shielding, and thermal insulation. To comply with these different design requirements, composite materials are tailored and designed for specific application and constraint. A survey of the present status of composite materials technology is made with emphasis on materials and applications useful in spacecraft structures. Information is obtained from the open literature, by attendance at meetings and symposia, and from the World Wide Web.
Brief discussions of the theory of composite strengthening and reinforcement mechanics are included. Advantages, disadvantages, problem areas, and actual and potential applications are described. The status of testing, processing, forming, fabrication, and joining are noted, and the opportunities offered by employing composite materials for spacecraft applications are described. The advantages as well as the drawbacks behind the use of composites are also listed with specific reference to the space environment. The most critical aspects, which involve the design and the development of a spacecraft are presented with reference to composite materials specifications and guidelines for selection. Next, the characteristics of fiber‐reinforced composite materials are listed. It is shown that composites possess significant advantages over presently used spacecraft structural materials; these include superior strength‐to‐weight and stiffness‐to‐weight ratios, more design freedom and flexibility, improved resistance to crack propagation, and greater potential for improvement of properties. Major problems include lack of uniform test methods, difficulty of joining, high cost, difficulty of fabrication and processing, and lack of information on reliability and reproducibility, particularly for the more advanced composites.
