As a member of the public who thought 1) spacecraft were covered in gold foil and 2) the foil looked "cheaply" made (assuming that was ok for space reasons), this video was even more informative to me than others I've watched. Thanks!

@HansLemurson

11 ай бұрын

Me too!

As someone who actively helps design these MLI blankets for new spacecraft, very cool to have the background of it!

@clayel1

11 ай бұрын

working for nasa or a company?

@L_Train

11 ай бұрын

You didn't have it before this?

@romerobryan83

11 ай бұрын

@@L_Train lol

@pokie6087

11 ай бұрын

@Kyle B liar

@ChemEDan

11 ай бұрын

@@pokie6087 It's very possible not to know the backstory to the project you're onboarding. I've seen interactions between hobbyists and professionals where both people learn just as much from each other. Hobbyist has broad knowledge, whereas professional keeps their nose to the grindstone on a particular aspect / narrow scope.

@Scott, I teach a university level spacecraft design course. Every semester I have to explain to my students what MLI is and what it's used for. Your brilliant explanation now relieves me of one lecture and lets me focus on other topics. Thanks for making my ob easier.

@Safetytrousers

11 ай бұрын

Nobody wants a hard ob.

@skierpage

11 ай бұрын

Give all your course notes to Scott, he'll make videos of spacecraft design, and you can take most of the semester off. 🙂

@johnmanford5736

11 ай бұрын

I've got a flown MLI. Would you be interested in one for show-n-tell?

@mg4695

11 ай бұрын

@@johnmanford5736 Thank you for the kind offer. However, I have some too.

Fun fact for you Scott, and other space model makers... Adam Savage found the inner foil wrapper of UK ROLO chocolates were the closest match on camera and used it on the miniatures in movies we've all seen!!! 👍😎🇦🇺

@subliminalvibes

11 ай бұрын

He discusses the foil here!! 12m 05s of this video .. 👍😎 kzread.info/dash/bejne/Y4tlyapxc9jLeM4.html

@jpdemer5

11 ай бұрын

That was just a ploy to get the studio to buy his candy bars.

As a former spacecraft thermal engineer, I appreciate your explanation. Thanks for educating the public! Every layer halves the emission.

@kaboom-zf2bl

11 ай бұрын

doesnt change the fact the apollo missions USED mylar coated with gold ... thats why they had to crinkle them so they showed more depth for the actual depth ...

@Gnefitisis

11 ай бұрын

So much for my Ferrero Roche conspiracy theory.

@dualcrocadile

11 ай бұрын

The effective emissivity scales with 1/(n + 1) for n layers. You don't halve the emission with each extra layer added (which would imply scaling of 1/(2^n).

@revmsj

11 ай бұрын

I knew someone would come here for this reply…☝🏾🙄

@jagmarc

11 ай бұрын

Hi Phil The ladies in the main hall assembled the thermal blankets using their little Frister Rossman sewing machine, her husband still in the music biz

From what I’ve read, the shock absorbers on the Apollo LM legs were actually an aluminum honeycomb structure that crushed under load, obviously a one time use thing. They were designed to absorb a pretty substantial load from a bad landing, but apparently were never compacted more than a few inches, Apollo 15 being the hardest landing of all the missions.

@Sonnell

11 ай бұрын

Apparently Falcon 9 landing legs use the same method.

@olliea6052

11 ай бұрын

And apollo 11 landed so gently they barely crushed at all. So Neil and Buzz had a big leap down off the ladder!

@nos9784

11 ай бұрын

​@@olliea6052 a giant leap for mankind! 😂 Yeah, that was pretty obvious.

@saiboogu

11 ай бұрын

​@@SonnellF9 legs have built in flex for standard landings. The crush cores on F9 are only used for out of norm landings, to prevent leg damage.

@olliea6052

11 ай бұрын

@@nos9784 aaahhhhh!!! A wasted opportunity!! Nice one! 😁👍

Anyone that's used old vacuum flasks knows that feeling when you hear that tinkle rattle when you drop you flask.

@disruptive_innovator

11 ай бұрын

sad day

@TheExplosiveGuy

11 ай бұрын

Ohh man that's a bad sound...

@johndododoe1411

11 ай бұрын

Fortunately they are now available in steel instead .

Kapton, especially in adhesive tape form, is definitely an S-tier material. I keep a couple rolls of it on-hand and find myself using it all the time.

@SnakebitSTI

11 ай бұрын

Any tips on getting it to stick to things? I have trouble getting Kapton tape to hold onto PCBs and components.

@BadPracticeAutomation

11 ай бұрын

@@SnakebitSTI You may be buying your kapton from an inferior supplier. I’ve had some cheaper Chinese rolls that didn’t stick too good. Also age may be a factor.

@paulmoir4452

11 ай бұрын

I laugh when I see construction photos of probes or satellites where they've hung up a paper sign, for example, "Please don't leave your old food in the employee fridge" with a piece of 40mm kapton tape.

@w0nd3rlu573r

11 ай бұрын

And here I am, trying to figure out where to buy this in my country for months 😞

@Beregorn88

11 ай бұрын

@@w0nd3rlu573r look into suppliers of consumable for PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition): we use it for masking and fixing stuff inside the chambers

Domestic aluminium foil is actually super clean. We make Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometers. SIMS is a surface analysis technique and we use it as a test target and wrap our clean room sub-assemblies in it.

@ChemEDan

11 ай бұрын

🤔 could be a difference in time? Voyager was almost half a century ago

I am so happy to finally know all the details of this insulation covering. Also those views of the legacy voyager trajectory gravity simulations at 8:43 were amazing! I had never seen those before

@robstamm60

11 ай бұрын

@@ethreix800 ChatGPT isn't exactly a reliable source of information. It is brilliant in creating new content (code, summaries, stories, ...) but the model is trained to produce the most likely continuation of a text which might actually contain true information but can also just be some convincing made up stuff.

@OutsiderLabs

11 ай бұрын

@@ethreix800 ChatGPT is probabilistic word salad. It knows nothing

@nunya___

11 ай бұрын

@@ethreix800 I know that's you ChatGPT. We're not falling for your fake google account name and we're not replacing Scott with you.

@Dakota__69

11 ай бұрын

ChatGPT will also make up information sources It could be used as a starting point, but I'd put it far below wikipedia as far as accuracy goes

@StYxXx

11 ай бұрын

The animation looks like from Star Wars :D

The same stuff - btw. made by a company called Austrian Aerospace - is also used in MRI and NMR superconducting magnets which require liquid helium at 4.2 Kelvin to be superconducting. Typically the liquid helium dewar is surrounded by a liquid nitrogen dewar (at 77 K) and finally several dozen layers of mylar foil in vacuum around it.

This makes me so happy. I've been decorating models with kapton tape over aluminum foil for years, simply trying to replicate the look. I started 3d printing over a decade ago with a Solidoodle, and the thing to do back then was use kapton tape on the heated bed. One day I looked at my roll of foil and a light bulb went off, it would look exactly like the real thing! Little did I know it mostly was the real thing. 😂 Thanks Scott!

The "Space Blankets" that you can buy at the local sporting goods store is the aluminized mylar that is used for insulating spacecraft, albeit a lower quality than the actual stuff. I've even run into aluminized kapton in an old oven that I was repairing. One of the many benefits that the public has received from the space program that is rarely recognized.

@SeanBZA

11 ай бұрын

That aluminised fabric is also used to make bags, which hold stuff sensitive to thermal damage, and they work well to keep the contents at a reasonably stable temperature. I use the old bags, which are very big, as camping blankets, as they are easily big enough to cover you, and after 5 minutes you are very warm inside from the reflected body heat. Normally a ground sheet, one on top of that, a blanket or thin foam mattress, then you, a blanket, and another on top is a perfect way to stay warm even on the coldest night. They take up little space when folded up as well.

@johndododoe1411

11 ай бұрын

Are these the same blankets provided as small packs in first aid kits, where the purpose is to cover exposed victims ?

@corwinchristensen260

11 ай бұрын

@@johndododoe1411 Yes. They're single layer, but very effective.

@simonm1447

11 ай бұрын

You also find them in European first aid kits, as blankets to protect people from hyperthermia until the ambulance picks them up

@CafeBikeGirl

11 ай бұрын

@@simonm1447 they aren't that effective in air although they are great at reflecting radiation (in this case a person's radiated heat back to the body) they have practically no R value for retaining heat due to convection. A normal blanket would probably still protect them better but they are bulky and difficult to put in an emergency pack.

First time I bought Kapton tape I was like "Wait, is *this* what that gold stuff is on space probes?!"

I actually _did_ know that it's aluminized mylar covered in a heat-resistant polyimide film, but I am after all a total nerd! 🤓 I have _so much Kapton in my workshop..._ Tape in widths from 6mm to _200mm,_ solid sheets of it, even massive sheets of Dupont Pyralux (Copper-clad Kapton film). It's such a versatile material! 🤩 Fun fact: Kapton tape is the best thing to cover the quartz window on a UV EPROM to prevent accidental erasure. The amber color filters the UV, and Kapton tapes leave like zero residue behind even after decades. 😌 Certainly a damn sight better than self-adhesive paper stickers which decompose after a decade. (except the adhesive which turns into an indestructible fossilized substance.)

@asicdathens

11 ай бұрын

I have several rolls of Kapton tape, the widest one is 200 mm width for 3d printing. Very finicky to unroll without being torn apart

@Bakamoichigei

11 ай бұрын

@@asicdathens Yep, that's what my 200mm roll was for originally. The trick is you need to build tools to do the job. My solution is ridiculously bodged together, I never got around to designing a 3D printed one before I stopped using Kapton on my printer bed, or I'd share. 🤷‍♂️

Thanks for including the part about the reinforced pressure vessel, because now that part is a good response to those who claim the lander was dressed to frumpy to land on the moon and walk down it's own senior prom ladder, or whatever they're on about.

I use kapton adhesive tapes for years. Mostly when fixing precise electronic PCB's. Sometimes for much different purposes.

@TheExplosiveGuy

11 ай бұрын

Kapton tape rocks, I use the stuff in all sorts of electronics projects, including High Voltage applications, it's incredible stuff. Another similar tape I _really_ like is Polyester powdercoat masking tape, it's resistant to HV, High temperature (450°F) and it forms an extremely strong shear bond if it's applied to smooth surfaces, not to mention it's thicker and stronger than Kapton, and it comes in all sorts of widths and thicknesses, from 1/8" wide strips to 6" wide rolls. Little on the spendy side but it's ohh so worth it.

@paulmichaelfreedman8334

11 ай бұрын

I keep forgetting to order a roll. I want it because it's mighty handy as thermal protector when using the hot air gun.

Polyamides and aluminized Mylar are also used in solar sail applications like Japan’s Ikaros and the Planetary Society’s Lightsail experiments.

I worked at Nitto Denko and we use to make and cut Polyimide Adhesive Tape for Heat-resistant Insulation No.360 Series. This was a Kapton tape.

I built an Airfix LEM (with accompanying ALSEP unit) and spent many hours covering the requisite parts in Quality Street wrappers. I can recall some terrific archive footage of one of the LEMs being tested in low earth orbit showing a detonation (stage separation or something) that shreds the foil spectacularly. The Apollo program, though: it was quite something, wasn't it? Fifty years or so ago and since then there's not been anything quite like it.

@paulmichaelfreedman8334

11 ай бұрын

Unfortunately some countries like to wage war and that requires the Pentagon to have a $ 900B yearly budget. Imagine what 900 billion could do if NASA does what it does with ~$20B per year.

@mrln247

11 ай бұрын

I just thought wonder how many Quality Street wrappers and the like went into the making of Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds. I haven't made an Airfix style model in a long time.

@johannesgutsmiedl366

11 ай бұрын

I wouldn't say that, in many ways modern modular space stations (Mir, ISS, Tiangong) are a lot more impressive from a technical perspective than the Apollo hardware for example.

@Retired-Don

11 ай бұрын

The last couple of Apollo landings included the rover with a camera that was ultimately used to live broadcast the launch of the ascent stage back into lunar orbit. There was a lot of shredded insulation blasted away as the ascent stage left the descent stage... One of the more amazing sights from the Apollo landings.

Had been wondering what it was since I was a child. Thanks for clarifying Scott. Amazing video as usual

I'm reminded of the emergency blankets I used to see in sporting goods stores. Well, I imagine they are still there, but I haven't been camping in almost 40 years. But these blankets consisted of a thin foil that would fold up to be about the size of a deck of playing cards. As I understood them, they can be so thin because they reflect nearly all the heat that hits the shiny foil back toward your body. I wouldn't think there would be enough room to place a vacuum between different layers, but perhaps there is.

@rogerwilco2

11 ай бұрын

The reflection alone already does a great job. I have been carrying such a blanket with me for over 30 years, wherever I go, and it has been useful twice. I wasn't in any life threatening situation, but it has allowed me to sleep comfortably when I found myself in unforeseen sub-zero temperatures. I did bring other gear, it is certainly not enough by itself, but if things turn out considerably colder than expected, it provides an effective extra layer. They are also useful to shelter against rain and lot of other things.

@BasePuma4007

11 ай бұрын

Having to strip down to expose your akin to the foil isn't always feasible but those survival blankets are very effective at reflecting heat back to your body.

I always found the insulation visually and texturally beautiful.

@hgbnkbggj2915

11 ай бұрын

Would you...lick it?

Got to love that Doritsos was the first commercial on this vid. It turned up just as you said metalized polymer.

I fully agree with everything you say. I worked in materials at BAe during the 80s, and one of my day to day jobs was measuring solar absorbance & thermal emissivity on both materials & space hardware. I handled this stuff, in all its myriad colours & grades daily. Every time I see a video from an idiot, laughing at the supposed inept build, the 'gold foil & sticky tape' & generally calling us stupid for believing that the LEMs ever flew, I try my best to educate them. It often feels like a Sisyphean task, with their boulder of ignorance.

The "shoddy workmanship" look on the Lunar Module also appears that way because changes were being made to it up to right before launch, so the insulation and panels had to be quickly reattached without concern for appearance.

11:12 interesting to see what’s actually under the hood. Never seen that picture before. Awesome. Have always wondered about the bare structure under all the stuff.

Scott's secret sauce... "vacuum between the sheets." Great video - almost XXX!

Kapton tape is amazing stuff! I was first introduced to it because they use it to mask off parts of a PCB board to shield it when it passed through a wave solder. That's right! It survives having molten metal passed over it! :o Of course, wave solder might be a thing of the past since almost everything is surface mount these days.

@jeromethiel4323

11 ай бұрын

Nope. Surface mount is still wave soldered. And usually at higher temperatures than the old days, due to the use of silver solder to reduce lead in the environment.

@owen368

11 ай бұрын

Was doing that a month or so ago.

@krzysztoflewandowski5066

10 ай бұрын

​@@jeromethiel4323wave soldering (selective wave more often nowadays) cannot be used for surface mount components. It would simply remove them off the board. For SMT you utilize reflow soldering. You are right about the temperatures though. With lead free soldering the peak temperatures can get up to 280 degrees Celsius in the hottest zones of the reflow ocen.

@jeromethiel4323

10 ай бұрын

@@krzysztoflewandowski5066 Odd how i have seen it done in more than one PCB manufacturing plant. Granted the SM components were epoxied to the PCB first, which may explain why it worked. Plus, we may even be talking about the same thing, as the boards i watched being made, the liquid solder never touched the top side of the board, so it may have just been the heat from the bottom, re-flowing the solder on the top. So maybe both?!? I never asked what they called it, i just know what i saw. When i am hand soldering, i do precisely what you are saying.

@krzysztoflewandowski5066

10 ай бұрын

@@jeromethiel4323 it's used when there is both tht and smt components. Smt are soldered first on what you could call the top side. Then the tht components are placed so the leads stick out on the bottom side. The wave touches the bottom side when soldering. There is also selective wave where the molten solder can be applied in certain spots of the board. Of course you also could be right - there is probably a thousand ways to assemble a board :)

Speaking about supermarket aluminum foil, I may or may not have used copper foil tape slathered around servos and other items to solve an EMI issue. You can also buy tinned copper braid normally used for bonding straps and run wiring harnesses through them for EMI protection. Ground one end not both unless you know what you're doing.

@SeanBZA

11 ай бұрын

You also get a knitted shielding material, made from permalloy wire, coated with copper and nickel to make it non reactive, that is knitted into a tape, that you wind around wire looms with a 50% overlap on each turn, that provides both Rf shielding from the thick copper layer, and also magnetic shielding, as it tends to carry the magnetic field around the bundle. It is also used on the edges of RF cavities and doors, where it provides a compliant RF ground, with multiple contact points to keep leakage low, and prevent the door cavities acting like a cavity filter and letting RF energy escape. In microwave ovens you get a similar RF gasket, there by the magnetron anode, the brass knitted washer, that provides both a RF connection, and a RF ground, between the roughly flat surface of the magnetron and the cavity, filling up the gaps and providing thousands of current carrier paths for the RF return current in the antenna probe. Copper foil tape is also a good way to keep the RFID cards in your wallet from being read, providing a very good RF shield, both for the transmitted carrier that powers the card, and for the return path, where the card modulates the RF energy it absorbs to transmit data back.

@davidbuller9696

11 ай бұрын

Luthiers commonly line the pickup cavity in an electric guitar with copper tape or other conductive materials to cut down on mains-frequency hum in their signal output.

@SeanBZA

11 ай бұрын

@@davidbuller9696 Yes copper is commonly used, while others have used a spray that has a high conductivity nickel powder in it. There are quite a few companies that do conductive coatings on plastic, used to make the plastic parts useful shielding, to prevent radiation, or to make them static dissipative. I used a graphite spray to reduce RFI from Apple computers, which used a plastic case, and it was very good at attenuating it, even though the spray is graphite based.

I wish KZread had teaching awards like Teacher of the Month or Teacher of the Year. You explain/teach one of the most difficult subjects to understand and I’m able to always understand it. TEACHER OF THE YEAR!

I'm so happy that you mentioned the aluminum foil used on Voyager. It's one of the best space cowboy-ish Space Race stories.

I use this kind of tape quite often, for taping temperature nodes on PCBs, where a lot of heat is build up. Does the job very well and it's safe.

The under-construction image of the LEM really showed that it's the weirdest shaped spacecraft ever!

@StevePemberton2

11 ай бұрын

Yeah it sure makes a difference when there is no reason to have curved surfaces for aerodynamic reasons. Although as you can see in that photo the "face" of the LM is round, that's because that part was pressurized, it's basically a short cylinder, sort of like a tuna can turned sideways. It's about 7.5 feet (2 meters) diameter and 3.5 feet (1 meter) deep. Behind it is a smaller diameter cylinder that you can't see which is the back part of the crew cabin, the astronauts would step up 18 inches into it and it was 4.5 feet (1.3 meters) deep.

@RRaquello

11 ай бұрын

@@StevePemberton2 You can also see the underneath blankets of insulation in post lift-off shots of the Apollo 16 LEM. For some reason, on lifting off from the moon, the back surface of the LEM was blown apart, exposing the thermal insulation underneath.

@StevePemberton2

11 ай бұрын

@@RRaquello That's interesting, I didn't know that insulation got exposed. Some people get alarmed at photos like that as if the astronauts were in danger, but as I mentioned they were inside a cylinder and it was pretty sturdy. It's an urban legend that an astronaut could put a pencil through the hull, or a foot, or as in some versions of the story a screwdriver. Actually there was very little hull exposed as they were surrounded by switches and instrument bays. And even in the few areas where the hull was exposed the aluminum was about 0.3 mm thick which is three times as thick as a modern soda can. Actually it is believed that with some determination an astronaut could have poked a hole with a screwdriver if they made repeated blows with it in the same spot.

@RRaquello

11 ай бұрын

​@@StevePemberton2 I believe they were all suited up for the lift off from the moon, so if there had been a break in the pressure capsule and the atmosphere was evacuated you wouldn't have ended up with a Soyuz 11 catastrophe. It wouldn't have been ideal, but I don't think it would have been a fatal situation. I remember seeing one particular photograph, I think from Apollo 15, where they didn't land on flat ground, they were kind of on a hill, and in this picture you could really see the angle and the thing was leaning over a bit and I thought, "Man, that looks like a real pile of junk sitting there". The LEM wasn't pretty, but it did the job it was designed for. On Apollo 16 the surface panels on the back of the LEM all came apart and exposed the insulation underneath. It wasn't a structural thing, but more appearances. I've never seen it much commented upon, so I don't know what the cause was or how much it worried NASA. I remember John Young just barely mentioning it like it was no big deal. Nobody would have even known about it at the time because you couldn't see it from inside and the first one to see it would have been Ken Mattingly when they got up tom the CM. And at that point the LEM only had a couple more hours of use left before Young & Duke went back with all the rocks into the CM and left the LEM to crash into the moon.

Designed and manufactured MLI's in my past job for large commercial satellites and it's great to see appreciation for what seems like such a mundane system of a spacecraft. While the individual materials of an MLI don't seem extraordinary, the total cost of a fully assembled blanket per square meter was unbelievable and always mind-boggled me.

There is another way to manage heat in space that you did not mention: phase changes. The Apollo PLSS (Personal Life Support System) used the evaporation of water when exposed to vacuum to cool both itself and the coolant that was circulated through the astronaut's undergarments. The LRV also used a phase change to cool its batteries, but in this case the phase change was the melting of wax in trays that were attached to the batteries. This was supplemented with two small radiators that could be opened or closed as needed. (If they parked the LRV in the LEM's shadow, for example, it would have got *really* cold.)

Thank you Scott, I always enjoy how you explain things so clearly!🙂👍

I never knew I never knew the details of this insulation. Thanks for the knowledge

7:38 Awesome to see that people with diverse skills can participate in the space program.

Loved those old school Voyager animations. Ah, memories.

I use Kapton tape for a variety of things in electronics, but it is also low friction and useful in for example my pick and place machine where the component tapes slide over other surfaces, -60 to +260 C. Good stuff

@Milkmans_Son

11 ай бұрын

260C ???

@chrishorne4016

11 ай бұрын

@@Milkmans_Son yep 533K. Some can go -270 to +400, but the stuff I use is a lot less expensive

Bold of you to assume I'd need the lure of gold to become a space scavenger

As a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons, one of the networks ran a short segment called “In The News”. I think it was reporter Scott Glenn who would spend 5 minutes talking about Pioneer 10, or the moon buggy with a solar panel roof, even Skylab with its mesh floors and special shoes.

@StevePemberton2

11 ай бұрын

Christopher Glenn, CBS. I remember that also.

Pioneer 10 and 11 - it warms my heart that you mentioned them! I have for a long time believed, that I was the only one alive still remembering them, now that there is all that talk about the Voyagers and their results!

What is that really cool 70s-looking computer graphics at 9:00? Did that come from NASA, or some contractor, is it in a documentary somewhere, is it public domain? It reminds me of the early vector scan video arcade games like Asteroids.

@ddegn

11 ай бұрын

I was wondering the same thing.

@RCAvhstape

11 ай бұрын

It kind of looks like the graphics you see in the cockpit of the Nostromo in Alien during the landing scene.

@Scott Manley , one of the most interesting aspects of the Apollo programme, for all it's high technology, is the use of a relatively seemingly low tech NASA issued mechanical chronograph wrist watch. The Omega Speedmaster Professional wristwatch, which ended up playing, at times, a crucial role. Would you consider doing a video on the use of timepieces in spaceflight? I've seen videos talking about this from the horology side of the fence; it would be fascinating to see a perspective from the spaceflight side of things. All the best, Scott. Loving your work.

@Milkmans_Son

11 ай бұрын

How about we call that movement old tech instead of low tech?

@meson183

11 ай бұрын

@@Milkmans_Son Quite possibly. Wording that bit was awkward.

@petergibson2318

11 ай бұрын

They had no choice...Quartz electronic wrist-watches were decades away (in the far distant future) back in 1969. It was mechanical wrist-watches or nothing.

@meson183

11 ай бұрын

@@petergibson2318 Yes. Good point, but it wasn't decades. It was months. The first consumer quartz wristwatch was released in December 1969. This lead to the _quartz crisis_ in the 1970's, in which the existing mechanical wristwatch industry underwent the massive impact of cheap mass manufactured quartz watches flooding the market. Brands went out of business left right and centre. I have no idea when the first quartz wristwatch with a chronograph complication appeared. But none-the-less, NASA continued for quite some years with the handwound _Omega Speedmaster Professional_ being the only wristwatch officially certified for spaceflight.

Thank you for yet another very thorough explanation of a subject I misunderstood Scott. 🙂

There was also Kapton covering the Apollo Command Module, although you only see it in the photos taken in space because it burns off during reentry. You also don't see it on the launchpad because at that time the entire Command Module is hidden by the Boost Protective Cover, which remains in place until the LES tower is jettisoned a few minutes into the launch. Most people are aware of the ablative honeycomb heat shield on the bottom of the CM, but many probably are not aware that the entire Command Module was coated with the same ablative honeycomb. But you don't see the ablative coating in space because of the Kapton coating, it's only visible when you see a Command Module in a museum. The Command Module Kapton was pressure sensitive tape that was applied to all of the surfaces, that's why it looks so smooth in the photos, not crinkly like the LM's Kapton "foil", giving the false impression that you are looking at a polished aluminum skin. Although if you look at the unflown Skylab rescue capsule at the Kennedy Space Center you can see the waviness of the tape and realize that it is not metal like you would think at first glance. Actually not all of the Kapton burned off during reentry, in fact if you look at photos of the Apollo 11 Command Module in the water and on the U.S.S. Hornet you can see quite a lot of Kapton remaining on the capsule, which has the more distinctive gold look than the space photos do. For some reason the recovery frogmen's supervisor told them to peel off all of the Kapton which they started to do, and apparently the rest of it was removed later, because when you see the Apollo 11 capsule at the Smithsonian all you see is the ablative coating.

Thanks!

@scottmanley

11 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Not sure about the US, but here in Europe we are required by law to have an emergency kit in every car. These include scissors, band aids, compresses and a rescue blanket. The blankets are pretty much the same foil as used in space applications (although without the million-dollar markup for quality control). They are quite cheap and i usually have a few extras on me when camping, because they are easy to duct-tape to the outside of the tent to keep it cool.

@bertoluccib6175

11 ай бұрын

This is indeed a single layer of a bit thicker foil, without that fabric inbetween layers

@yeswellfrombrittany6907

11 ай бұрын

Called "couverture de survie" or "couverture isotherme" in french. There are military-grade types as well. All are based on plastic layered with metal (aluminium) derived from this one insulation problem Scott is explaining. Another example of space technology coming to us folks.

@dextermorgan1

11 ай бұрын

To answer your question: No, we are not required to have safety kits of any kind in our cars.

@ReneSchickbauer

11 ай бұрын

@@dextermorgan1 Strange. So i'm guessing you are not legally required to render first aid in case of an accident?

@terry5089

11 ай бұрын

@@ReneSchickbauer In fact so called "Good Samaritan's" have been sued in the past because they made a problem worse by trying to help and doing the wrong thing. For example, moving the head of an accident victim and causing paralysis. Many states now have laws to protect these "Samaritans" from being sued.

my whole life I knew it wasn't gold but had no idea what it actually was, thanks for the detailed explination scott

Pointing to the insulation has always been the most irritating argument of the Apollo Deniers. Somehow that one always baits me into an argument. From now on I'll just send them here! LOL

Many internal satellite structures are vapor deposition of gold on a thin layer of Kevlar. It’s not for thermal insulation but for preventing EMI.

@johndododoe1411

11 ай бұрын

Is that woven Kevlar or some other form?

@RA-gk5zg

11 ай бұрын

@@johndododoe1411 All the ones I have seen are woven Kevlar 120. They are not epoxy prepreg due to outgassing, usually cyanate ester resin.

TLDR: It's not foil, it's party balloons and lace. There was actual gold in the helmet visors, though. See also the canopy of the recently-retired EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft -- it's kinda like that grid in the door of your microwave oven, except in the Prowler's case it's keeping the microwaves OUT so the radar-jamming pods on the wings don't cook the crew.

@RRaquello

11 ай бұрын

I believe some gold and silver was also used in the wiring. Not sure how much.

Always more new (and old) things to learn. TY!

One genius (and simple) method of passive insulation was used on the Lunar Rover, where the batteries were packed in paraffin. While the rover was being used, the paraffin would melt, absorbing the heat being generated by the batteries, which would then solidify once the rover was parked at the end of the EVA, dissipating the heat that accumulated during use. This was a low weight solution to the more elaborate cooling system which was originally planned for the rover.

I use kapton tape pretty often during hot air reflow of circuit board components. Pretty great way to avoid heating delicate parts.

@dizzious

11 ай бұрын

I thought I was the only one who knew that trick!

1kg per centimetre, likely the 1st time I’ve conceptualised pressure measurements. Not sure why I ever looked, but psi has always just been a measurement

I think I've got a pretty good handle on spaceflight, but I learn something every time I watch a Scott Manley video. I had no idea the blankets were intentionally crumbled.

Seeing that wristwatch for scale made me realize the Apollo lundar lander was a lot smaller than I expected.

About 41 kg of gold was utilized in the construction of the US Columbia space shuttle, particularly in coated plastic films, electrical contacts, brazing alloys, and fuel cell fabrication

@override7486

11 ай бұрын

What????? 41 kilograms of pure gold? That sounds INSANE, even unbelievable. Do you have some source, info, documentation about this topic???

@59seank

11 ай бұрын

I'm finding stories about this, but they do not show sources.

@jeffspaulding9834

11 ай бұрын

For pure gold all as one lump, it'd be a bit larger than a 2-liter bottle.

@jpdemer5

11 ай бұрын

@@jeffspaulding9834 That's enough for a couple square kilometers of contact surfaces. The "41 kg" thing was obviously pulled out of somebody's butt.

@RS-ls7mm

11 ай бұрын

I found the photo where this came from. Seems to be from a very questionable source, the money project.

By the way, the foil you get from supermarkets is quite clean as far as particulates go. It's one of the best work surfaces for amateur optics formation as it is cheap and clean.

@stuartgray5877

11 ай бұрын

We use industrial Al Foil in our vacuum chambers at work, but we are reminded to NOT just use any old "Reynolds wrap" from box stores as SOME of it has a thin coating of vegetable oil on one side.

3:01 Euclid mission! If all goes well, it should be lanched on July 1st. I hope you will do a dedicated video, this telescope is marvelous.

Hey Scott, the picture of the technician working right next to the RTG housing of New Horizons made me wonder what kind of shielding they have. Or just their construction/operation in general. Have you made a video detailing the history and functionality of RTG's through the decades? If not, I would sure love to see one. If you have, I'd love it if someone could point me in the correct direction.

@unitrader403

11 ай бұрын

just to answer your direct question: RTGs are shielded heavily, but not for the reason you think, at least for Space missions. They are designed in such a way that they will survive if the Rocket that carries them explodes, and this is also true for their orbital insertion. and with survive i mean that it will not leak any radioactive materials. as far as i know this precaution already makes their construction so heavy that no further shielding for the radiation is needed. At least thats what i remember about that topic.. i might misremember stuff since its been a few years since i read up on this..

@Yrouel86

11 ай бұрын

Plutonium 238 basically doesn't require any extra shielding, the container itself, thermocouples around it etc is plenty because it's essentially only an alpha emitter

@AllanFolm

11 ай бұрын

I'm pretty sure the RTGs weren't loaded with plutonium until shortly before launch.

@DrDeuteron

11 ай бұрын

Pu 238 is alpha decay, so a post it note is enough

@SeanBZA

11 ай бұрын

@@DrDeuteron True, but the decay products are not quite as benign after a while, as you get into the longer lived decay products, that are going to emit gamma radiation at some level. But the RTG would only have the core loaded just before final mating to the lift vehicle, so it is inert, aside from some testing during construction, then the fuel pellets are removed and placed in a cooling unit. But even then you can stand next to it for a few hours, as the shielding is very effective, and it also has to survive reentry at maximum velocity in case of a failure of the launch vehicle, and also explosion on the pad. That is why those RTG units are normally deployed on an arm, both for radiating heat away, and to keep the low levels they emit from interfering with other instruments, so have it far away, and calibrate it out.

If you're looking for a spacecraft with precious metals or gems, doesn't the Parker Solar Probe have sapphire in the wiring and the cup that collects the samples from the sun?

@TheExplosiveGuy

11 ай бұрын

In that case it would be synthetic sapphire, a much cheaper material than most people think. It's not _cheap_ per say, but it's cost is miles apart from natural Sapphire. I have a couple boules of synthetic Ruby and Sapphire that are about 1.25" in diameter and 4 inches long, each cost only about $40-$50. Many military vehicle optics (like tanks and aircraft) have very large diameter Sapphire lenses cut from gigantic blocks of perfectly clear Sapphire.

@SeanBZA

11 ай бұрын

@@TheExplosiveGuy Synthetic sapphire is glass clear, as it is pure monocrystalline aluminium oxide, which is what a sapphire and ruby is, just the red and other colours comes from impurities. The actual laser rods themselves are totally clear, though when they failed they usually turned to a fine powder from the energy release.

@TheExplosiveGuy

11 ай бұрын

@@SeanBZA Yep, it's all corundum/aluminum oxide, red ruby is just corundum that has trace amounts of chromium, and blue sapphire titanium, with oranges, yellows and pinks made with beryllium.

I can't believe I've never seen a naked lander before, that's a cool picture.

The Clangers would have looked very different if they had these materials instead of wool…

Thank you for explaining this. I always thought they were gold and that was why spacecraft were so expensive.

@everettstormy

11 ай бұрын

Nah, they just expensive cuz a bunch of nerdz decided their computers are to sensitive. Id say just suck it out butter cup and fire it off

That graphic of Jupiter spinning at 8:50 reminded of the A New Hope Star Wars movie graphic of the death star.

I don't know how i didn't find this channel earlier, awesome content. 👍

The early LM designs were beautiful, far more persuasive looking vehicles, that were even rovers. Flash Gordon would have loved it. Until they found out they were way, way too heavy. I think I remember for the final LM they ripped off stuff to the last minute. It would be an interesting video about all the designs that did NOT make it, and why.

@thewildcellist

11 ай бұрын

That's an interesting point. There are contracts for those machines - landers; rovers. Numerous companies create designs/prototypes in competition for the contract. (It's happening right now with next gen lunar terrain vehicles for Artemis. Competition entry deadline is this August; the winner will be announced in November.) Anyway, it'd be interesting to see different competing designs of the Apollo era gear. I've read a bit about it (Earl Swift's 2021 book on the rovers goes into some detail) but I can't recall seeing any photos.

@SeanBZA

11 ай бұрын

Plus the material used for the walls got thinner and thinner, till they had to stop, because the craft was almost at the point it could not support itself under earth gravity. So thin that the crews who were building it had to take care not to step on, or touch the hull, as they could destroy it merely by putting a foot on the surface, and tear the skin. This would mean scrapping the entire craft, and building another, as the skin was too thin, and the joins so small, that they could not remove a panel and rivet in another, as the material would likely tear. The end material was barely thicker than the aluminium used to make cans, and just as easy to dent when not pressurised.

@underthelidar

11 ай бұрын

I love what the LM design contributes to engineering philosophy: engineers appropriately seek simple and elegant solutions most of the time, but when designing at the edge of capability for current technology, the design may look strange of necessity.

08:44 Is that voyager flyby an historic computer animation or a recreation? Was it made pre or post launch? It looks so much like the death Star.

@yeswellfrombrittany6907

11 ай бұрын

Very 80's for sure, this footage is awesome.

@tiffany352

11 ай бұрын

I'm wondering about this as well, would love to find the original source for it. I tried searching but found nothing.

@zounds010

11 ай бұрын

historic, and predates Voyager (the name is JSP in some of the animation), might be part of the original Grand Tour program that would use 4 spacecraft to visit all 5 outer planets.

Thank you! That was very educational without a lot of time-wasting filler. Answered some questions I've wondered about for a long time now. Very much appreciated! ☮

@MuckyWaters

9 ай бұрын

Yes I also apreatiate Scott getting into the meat of the material right away without long irritating intros and lead-up material that other youtubers often use. I have see some videos use up nearly half the video before getting into the main topic you actually clicked on the video to see. Of course they get a thumb down.

Great vid! Loving the giant Speedmaster model behind the LEM!

The oil film on aluminium foil is a residual coating from the rolling process that produces the foil. It is not a coating added to prevent things from sticking to the finished product.

This video is for all the flat earthers an space deniers who complain over that the moon lander is a bad movie prop made from construction paper, tape, and aluminum foil.

Fascinating stuff indeed! Thanks, Scott!!! 😊 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

Kapton is electrical tape and duct tape for space.

Curses foiled again.

@samsonsoturian6013

11 ай бұрын

Username checks out.

Thanks a lot for this one, Scott. You have answered a lot of lurking questions very artfully-

The old school vector graphics of the Voyager animations was extremely cool =)

Kapton, otherwise lovingly named Crapton

@notfunny3397

11 ай бұрын

It doesn't weigh a crapton tho

@DJ_Level_3

11 ай бұрын

@@notfunny3397 But it has a crapton of uses!

@chrislaf89

11 ай бұрын

@@notfunny3397 It's not about it weighing too much. It's about how shitty it was as insulation for our wiring. It was used as a lightweight alternative in aviation for a while, but it breaks down in that environment with fair ease. Thus, it's crappy, so krapton (or crapton).

@notfunny3397

11 ай бұрын

@@chrislaf89 I'm sorry, I was just trying to be funny

Always interesting and well presented. Thank you Scott.

I have never seen the pressure vessel of the lunar lander! That was so cool, thanks!

My best friends dad was in charge of wiring for the LEM. He would bring home lots of this plastic film from the plant for us to play with. Are you aware they made TWO identical LEMs?? One went to the moon, the other stayed in the plant in Bethpage. After the astronaunts came back safely, the duplicate LEM was pushed out into the parking lot and spray painted with camo green and left out in the weather for a LONG time. I used to see it outside of the hanger every day on my way to school. I also had the super guppy fly over my house when it came to pick up the LEM and deliver it to NASA in Florida One of the scariest things the engineers thoufgt about was the explosive wire guillotine that cut the wires from the ascent module from the decent module. If this failed, the ascent module would just tip over and never left the moons surface

Thank you for a very informative episode. Did not know I always wanted to know how the metal foils worked on the JWST and bonus information on the lunar landers. Thanks for sharing.

Loved the Death Star graphs, 2 meter exhaust port, line up for your attack runs 💯👍😂😂😂 Great video, Thanks Scott

Thanks for the knowledge Scott!

Unrelated to the video but the classic CGI of the voyager flybys was awesome to look at

I use Kapton tape at work (for card chips). Such a cool material!

same with the apollo CSM, the spacecraft in pictures are that beautiful shining silver in space. they had many layers of aluminized kapton that kept the temperature regulated and were protected by a nosecone on the saturn V but would also burn off once the vehicle reentered the atmosphere

when i was a kid looking a the dictionaries pictures of apollo lem wondering if its a genius spacey vibe design or a kid just crumple paper things now this is why all those years wondering come to past now thanks scotty manley!

ahhhh back in Scotland once again and my neck of the woods too, last time it was me correcting your pronunciation of Schiehalion. now its a little bit of history regarding James Dewar, in my Home town of Perth, the is the Dewars Centre, formerly Dewers Ice Rink but its been repurposed for small conventions and the likes, it is named after James Dewar, in his honour along with Dewars Court, an assisted Living Facility for the elderly, they still have their independence, can come and go as they please but in case of emergency there is always staff on hand and it never gets broken into because it is very strategically located, right across the road from the Police Station.

that cosmonaut's spacewalk to stab open the soyuz return capsule seems like quite a strange assignment.

I remember some touring NASA exhibit a few years back that in the gift shop sold some “MLI” thermal blankets adapted for personal use. They sure charged a lot for it from what I remember.

Great video Scott. Thank you!

Thank. I designed the continuous Kapton polymer filtration system.

It's complex and fascinating - simply insane!

Kapton is also used extensively at the LHC and I assume any other particle accelerators too. Not always for the temperature stability though, it is also very radiation hard and a good dielectric. It's the tape of choice at our small detector on the LHC for electric insulation (including high voltage) and stuff like fixing thermistors in places even as close as few millimeters from the LHC beam, so a very radiation intensive environment.

Thank You, for your explanations... Very interesting.