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DuPont Products Go to Mars and Beyond
Wilmington - Feb 11, 2004 Opportunity has landed. Since the birth of manned space flight more than four decades ago, DuPont has been along for the ride with products essential for lighter weight, reduced volume, durability and environmental resistance. Today's Mars Exploration Rovers - Spirit and Opportunity - are enabled by materials from DuPont Electronic Technologies. Consumers will find the same DuPont technologies enabling cell phones, plasma display panels, personal digital assistants (PDAs), video camcorders, laptop computers and digital cameras, among others. DuPont electronic materials make these products smaller and more durable, while allowing them to do more, faster and better. These high-tech materials provide the same solutions so that today's rovers have more space for additional scientific payload. The Mars rovers currently in space include almost 70 yards each of flexible cable circuits made of thin DuPont PyraluxR laminates and composites. By replacing bulky round wires and cables, these materials can provide a volume savings of between 60 percent and 70 percent. Stacked, they would total less than 1.5 inches. PyraluxR flexible circuits connect the "brain" of the rovers to their parts - the robotic arm, cameras, high gain antenna, wheels and sensors. Pressure-sensitive tape made of DuPont KaptonR polyimide film is used throughout the rovers to control vibration. PyraluxR flexible cables secured with KaptonR tape offer durable, lightweight environmental resistance for the temperatures on Mars, ranging from minus 120 degrees Centigrade (minus 184 degrees Fahrenheit) to 22 degrees C (72 degrees F). Hundreds of KaptonR strip heaters are used throughout the rovers for thermal control, ensuring critical warmth needed to maintain operations in the extremely cold Martian atmosphere. Traditional copper wires and cables have large conductors that can easily allow heat to escape from the rover electronics module, threatening a shortened mission life. KaptonR strip heaters significantly reduce that risk and allow the rovers to use smaller solar panels and batteries. The cameras beaming clear, high resolution signals back to Earth can do so in part because the PyraluxR flexible circuits were made using RistonR dry film photoresists and ImageMaster phototooling films that provide reliable fine-line circuit images, ensuring consistent quality signals and performance. "The technology that helps meet the challenges we face today starts with high-performance materials from DuPont," said David B. Miller, vice president and general manager, DuPont Electronic Technologies. "Our materials have enabled manned and unmanned missions into space by providing key benefits, including significant volume and weight savings in addition to bend and twist flexibility. That's the same trend you can see and feel in everyday products like lighter, thinner cell phones, yet these smaller, more advanced electronics are much more powerful." In addition to the rovers, satellites orbiting Earth today provide clear communications because of thin, lightweight and durable PyraluxR flexible circuits. KaptonR film works with layers of DuPont TeflonR fluoropolymer resin and PyraluxR flexible cables to provide power from the Rover Electronics Module to the hardware components in the rovers. The flexible joints of the robotic arm, which must withstand repeated bending in extreme environments, use KaptonR and PyraluxR. KaptonR strip heaters are wrapped around each of the motors on the robotic arm to keep the motors and gearboxes running at optimum temperature and efficiency. Metallized KaptonR is used in thermal shielding for heat-sensitive components. The airbags, so critical to the rovers' successful landings, are threaded and reinforced with DuPont KevlarR brand fiber. Other DuPont inventions have contributed to space exploration. On Apollo missions to the moon, 20 of the 21 layers in each space suit were made with DuPont materials, including nylon, DacronR polyester fiber, MylarR polyester film, neoprene and KaptonR. Today's suits include fewer layers but many of the same products, in addition to NomexR and KevlarR branded fibers. KevlarR also was used on the Galileo probe to Jupiter, which included a parachute made of KevlarR, and at the International Space Station, where a blanket made of KevlarR was used to wrap its inner walls to protect from micrometeorites. In addition, the Space Station's wings used KaptonR to absorb UV rays. Related Links Dupont SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express
North American Transponder Market Could Top $2.5 Billion By 2010
Palo Alto - Feb 11, 2004Despite overcapacity and strong competition from terrestrial networks, the Fixed Satellite Services market in North America will continue to grow throughout the rest of the decade. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Commercial Geostationary Satellite Transponder Markets for North America: Growth Opportunities in a Mature Market, reveals that this market is likely to generate revenues worth $2.56 billion by 2009. |
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