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The sunshield component attaches to the main spacecraft, and its booms expand outward spreading out the heat shield and separating the layers. [24] During launch the shield is folded up; later, when it is in space, it is carefully unfurled. [24] When the sunshield is fully spread open, it is 14.6 meters (48 ft) wide by 21.1 meters (69 ft) long ...
Whipple shield used on NASA's Stardust probe. The Whipple shield or Whipple bumper, invented by Fred Whipple, [1] is a type of spaced armor shielding to protect crewed and uncrewed spacecraft from hypervelocity impact / collisions with micrometeoroids and orbital debris whose velocities generally range between 3 and 18 kilometres per second (1.9 and 11.2 mi/s).
Fred Lawrence Whipple (November 5, 1906 – August 30, 2004) was an American astronomer, who worked at the Harvard College Observatory for more than 70 years. Among his achievements were asteroid and comet discoveries, the "dirty snowball" hypothesis of comets, and the invention of the Whipple shield.
A space sunshade or sunshield is a parasol that diverts or otherwise reduces some of the Sun's radiation, preventing it from hitting a spacecraft or planet and thereby reducing its insolation, which results in reduced heating. Light can be diverted by different methods.
The shield weighs only 73 kilograms (160 lb) and keeps the spacecraft's instruments at 29 °C (85 °F). [39] A white reflective alumina surface layer minimizes absorption. The spacecraft systems and scientific instruments are located in the central portion of the shield's shadow, where direct radiation from the Sun is fully blocked. If the ...
In November 2017, the Space Telescope Science Institute announced the selection of 13 Director's Discretionary Early Release Science (DD-ERS) programs, chosen through a competitive proposal process. [ 232 ] [ 233 ] The observations for these programs – Early Release Observations (ERO) [ 234 ] [ 235 ] – were to be obtained during the first ...
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Space Development Agency: Likely operational Starshield satellites. Hosts infrared payloads manufactured by Leidos. Launched with one York Space Systems-built and 10 Lockheed Martin/Tyvak Space Systems-built Transport layer satellites on this mission. [42] 5 USA 350-351: v2 mini 2024-050 19 March 2024, 02:28 Vandenberg, SLC-4E: 525 km (326 mi ...