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'Smart' material key step in plans for base on moon
Frederica-area company lands grant for work on adaptable tent
By RICHARD SINE / The News Journal
05/30/2005
Space scientists have known for years that the first moon base likely would never be built.
It would be inflated.
With the enormous expense of space travel, transporting and building a large structure girder by girder would be impractical.
Instead, like explorers climbing Mount Everest, astronauts will pack their tent and construct it when they reach their destination.
A company near Frederica, ILC Dover, last month received the first installment of a $12 million grant to help develop this tent in partnership with NASA.
The grant follows last year's commitment by the Bush administration to establish a human colony on the moon. President Bush said the colony would be a launching point for a later mission to Mars. Manned lunar exploration would resume between 2015 and 2020.
ILC Dover, which has designed spacesuits for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration since the Apollo missions, will capitalize on that knowledge to create new materials that can withstand the extreme stresses of space, the moon and someday Mars.
"We've already been to the moon with our technology," said Cliff Willey, program manager for space inflatables at ILC Dover. "We're looking forward to going back."
NASA's inflatable tent would be like nothing now found on Earth. It would have to endure extreme heat, cold, radiation and regular assault from tiny meteorites hurtling 30 times faster than a bullet.
To survive such stresses, ILC Dover scientists said, it won't be enough for the tent to be tough. It will also have to be "smart," that is, adaptable and aware of its surroundings.
Sensors embedded in the fabric would transmit data on temperature, radiation levels or structural damage.
A smart structure could land on the moon, inflate and monitor itself for problems before the astronauts land, said Dave Cadogan, ILC's research director.
"We'd want to make sure everything is working perfectly before we send people there," Cadogan said.
The sensors would be made of metal-containing, threadlike fibers rather than metal wires, which are more prone to wear.
In one experiment, electrical engineer Craig Scheir put fiber-optic cables into fabric. The fabric emitted a blue glow to indicate the location of a breach.
Scheir also is studying how flexible solar cells could be placed on the fabric's surface to help power the base.
"When you go up to Mars, you don't have an extension cord back to Earth," Scheir said. "You need to get power where you can."
A tent like no other
The tent material itself would be made of several layers, each with its own function. The inner layers would contain a bladder to hold in the habitat's atmosphere. This layer might be made of urethane-coated nylon.
A middle layer would be a stiff, webbed fabric to provide structural strength. This might be made of the company's Vectran fiber. Vectran is now used in the air bags that cushion the landings of u
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