Posts: 334 From: Lowestoft, Suffolk, UK Registered: Mar 2007
posted 06-14-2019 06:35 AM
Why do the Apollo/Skylab command modules look so different from the look they had when they were recovered to what the museums display today?
They have this tan colour of the under surface. But if you look at photos of the command modules being lifted onto the recovery ships, we see a lot of the silver or white G1015 tape material still well attached to the sides.
So why do the command modules on display not have the tape still on them? Why take it off at all if as it looks to be still well attached in a lot of places?
oly Member
Posts: 971 From: Perth, Western Australia Registered: Apr 2015
posted 06-14-2019 08:03 AM
The tape was removed as a part of the post flight inspection and as a part of the desalination/preservation measures after being submerged in seawater. Engineers were interested in how the heat shield survived the rigors of spaceflight, re-entry and splashdown.
NavyPilot Member
Posts: 36 From: Registered: Nov 2015
posted 06-14-2019 09:04 PM
The upper area of the capsule also is fitted with a phenolic resin heat shield, not just the conical base of the capsule. That rust color is about the native color of the material.
The tape is intended to manage radiative heating -- in space, a spacecraft really needs cooling more than heating (humans and avionics radiate thermal energy into the cabin), and reflecting solar energy away helps reduce heating of the capsule. Same idea with PTC -- solar heating (and vacuum cooling) management.