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Author
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Topic: Skylab Parasol Material
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EagleKeeper
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posted 10-15-2003 04:24 PM
   
Well while going through some of the boxes of stuff I have accumulated over the years, I have come accross something of interest. I have in my possesion some scraps left over from the Skylab Parasol. The material is unflown, and genuine. I am thinking of selling small pieces of it, and would provide documentation and/or a COA with it.I am not sure what I will be selling it for.( I have noticed a few different sites where things such as this are going for between 30 and 65 dollars.) However I would make this available for a price that most of us can afford without too much trouble. And well below the cheaper price. Anyhow, I am trying to get a feel for whether or not this would be an item of interest. I know there have to be other Skylab fans out there besides me, and this would be a nice little momento considering it's the 30th Anniv of the station.From the USAF, Brian
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 53388
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 10-15-2003 04:42 PM
Can you share a bit about the history of the material? How did you come to own it and where did it come from? I know NASA took the material and presented small cards with pieces of it to employees and contractors. |
EagleKeeper
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posted 10-15-2003 10:35 PM
Well to try and give a little detail, Yes there was a bunch of pieces that were given out to those who worked for NASA or on the project etc. Mine comes from a gentleman who worked for NASA for 30+ years and recently retired. He worked for the Education Working Group at JSC, and used to be one of the NASA employees who would drive around the country in the SpaceMobiles. As with alot of things, he was given alot of materials such as the parasol material to take around the country to show to school kids etc. Get them into the different projects if you will. Maybe some of us actually saw these during these tours. Anyhow, after the tours, they were allowed to keep some this stuff for themselves. He also was given alot of things by the people who were in charge of storing these things over the years.They were usually slated for disposal ..... into the trash. So in all terms, they were saved by destruction. And eventually they were handed down to me. So now as I said, I would like to share some of this with others. Please feel free to email me offline at soccerbro2001@yahoo.com for more info. Thanks!Brian |
Rick Mulheirn
Member Posts: 4599
From: England
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 10-16-2003 12:47 PM
Re Skylab shade material. From memeory this was produced by the Scheldahl Corp (apologies if I have spelled the name incorrectly) of California....... I think. They produced samples of the material approximately 3 inches square with an image of Skylab and a paragraph about the shade and its material, printed upon the silvered surface. Regards, Rick. |
EagleKeeper
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posted 10-17-2003 01:43 PM
Fellow Skylab fans! I am ready to sell a few of the small samples I already mentioned earlier. Thanks to all of those who have responded so positively. The samples are going to be about the same size as some of the other low priced samples I have noticed put up for sale on this and other sites. The ones people have graciously made available to many of us who couldn't afford to sell the kids to get a genuine bit of history. And the prices of these bits of Skylab Parasol material will also be at a low price compared to some of the ones I have located around the web. For more details, please feel free to contact me offline at soccerbro2001@yahoo.com Thanks!Brian F.
12th FS
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EagleKeeper
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posted 10-27-2003 01:16 PM
Hi everyone.I was called away on business for the USAF, so I am catching up on things. I have finally come up with a decent idea for the material, and should make it a bit more pleasing to the eye as well. I have located a photo in the archives of the Skylab Parasol being tested indoors. The photo number is S73-26390 , and I will be mounting the sample to 8x10 copies of this photo. I have chosen this photo due to the fact that the material I have was not a flown item, and I feel this actually makes it unique and quite different from the others available out there that show the Skylab Space Station instead. Any interested parties may contact me offline. Thanks! Brian. [This message has been edited by EagleKeeper (edited October 27, 2003).] |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3881
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 11-04-2003 01:41 PM
Actually, there were three different sun shield devices that were flown aboard CM-116 in order to save the Skylab OWS by Conrad's SL-2 crew. NASA wanted to make sure at least one of the sun shades would work, however, there were two sun shade devices that were actually used throughout the lifetime of the orbital Skylab station. The first parasol canopy was supplied by C.T. Schjeldahl Co. of Northfield, MN. The outside material was a 1.1 oz. Nylon Ripstop that was laminated to a 1/2 mil aluminized Mylar covering. In Sept. 1973, before the last Skylab mission was scheduled to fly to the outpost, NASA's Manned Flight Awareness Office received instructions to issue a souvenir as a Skylab Program memento to all
NASA and involved contractor personnel. That resulted in a wallet-size laminated card, usually with a worker's name typed in, along with the caption; "Presented in Appreciation For Your Role in The Skylab Program. This small portion of material is the same as that which The Skylab Crew installed to shield Skylab from the sun, thereby assuring its habitability and the capability to proceed with the Skylab mission." At the bottom of the card are the printed signatures (all autopens) of all nine Skylab astronauts. Fortunately, the first parasol makeshift sun shield that NASA wanted to deploy worked well in covering an area 22x24', but it had a few wrinkles. Still it covered about 90% of Skylab's exposed meteoride shield that brought inside temperatures gradually down. Once installed, in about 11 days, the inside temperature was a comfortable 75 degrees for the SL-2 crew. |
spaceuk
Member Posts: 2113
From: Staffs, UK
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 11-04-2003 02:30 PM
This brings back memories :-)I was over in States to view and cover the Skylab space station launch (succeeded in that) and what should have been the following first Saturn IB launch (which didn't happen until later because of the solar panel problem). Later that same week,went over to Huntsville and Marshall to gather background material for Skylab and the then still infant shuttle program.On the day I was there they were cutting the material for the sunshade on this huge floor area. Most of these areas were normally closed to public but as we were with a MSFC engineer and NASA PR/media folk we got permission to visit. Being a cheeky devil (as I was then in younger days!) I asked if they had any cutoffs. Yep,was the reply,have this one and this one! One is the gold (mylar,I forget off hand)
type and the other is the 'aluminium colour' type with a fabric type feel to it. I wrote about this for BIS Spaceflight magazine back in a 1974/5 issue. I've been using these items in talks and lectures since then in UK whenever I cover space station topics including the three seperate talks to BIS members in London on Skylab, Modular Space Stations and Space Shuttle . Still got these pieces. It was one of those day's - right place,right time. Later that same day saw backup crews in the neutral buouyancy tank practising the repair
procedures . NASA PR gave couple of pics of that event - which I still have though they are beginnig fade (I did scan some months back before they fade too far!).
Phill
UK
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Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3881
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 11-09-2003 03:08 PM
Phill--Good to see another post from you. There is a good photograph, in case anyone is interested, that fully illustrates the primary solar shield that was the actually flight article used in shading the Skylab Orbital Workshop Station. The NASA Photo Number is: S-73-26390. The pic shows the "parasol" umbrella-like mechanical device almost fully deployed as it was tested in Building 10 at the Johnson Space Center's Technical Services shop. Just the other day Bill Pogue and I were trying to figure out what material type, side/etc. pertained to an actual swatch we were examining. The underside of the parasol is a bright orange-red color fabric, however, the exposed sun-side is a bright reflective silver mylar. |
nasamad
Member Posts: 2199
From: Essex, UK
Registered: Jul 2001
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posted 11-09-2003 05:09 PM
Hi Phill, Let us know when you are giving another talk at the BIS, I's love to hear your stories and see some of your artifacts ! Cheers.....Adam |
spaceuk
Member Posts: 2113
From: Staffs, UK
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 11-10-2003 10:44 AM
If I can get a good image of the Skylab material from my scrap items taken at MSFC I'll try a get a web page up. It is orange on one side and a different colour on the other. It has a "fabric feel" to it rather than a "metallic feel" what you would expect .If I recall correct, after the Marshall tests, the material was flown across to JSc for final prepping before transport down to KSc later that month for flight with Pete's crew. I think the Marshall guys said that there was another Center involved as well but I can't recall which one. Maybe Ames or Dryden ?
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Matt T
Member Posts: 1373
From: Chester, Cheshire, UK
Registered: May 2001
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posted 11-10-2003 12:01 PM
Don't know if this is of any interest (or just plain irrelevant!) but I recently won a Skylab lucite containing a small swatch of the silver parasol material. The lucite is from the 'Standard Packaging Corporation' or maybe it's 'Standard Packing Corporation' (I don't have it in front of me), who were the makers of the material.Cheers,
Matt |
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