Sunshield, Solar Sails & Solar Arrays
ILC has worked on a number of programs that require large area membrane structures including sunshields to protect telescopes, space stations and propellant depots, astronomical occulting devices, and solar sails. Our first experience in this area was working with NASA to rapidly develop a sunshield to protect the Skylab Space Station after one of the solar arrays failed to deploy. Since then we have been expanding our experience with very thin membrane structures to create next generation gossamer solutions to enable space exploration.
Our experience in materials design and seaming has been critical to our success in working with micron-thick membranes. Equally important are the techniques we have applied to our inflatable support structures and membrane assemblies ensure controlled deployment of these large area systems to prevent entanglement or tear of the membranes during deployment.
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 Skylab Sunshield |
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 Solar Arrays |
 Propellant Depot Sunshields |
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