Trivia question.

[Lawren]

I do not know the answer to this. Please help me.
The high gain antenna on the Galileo spacecraft was made of gold plated metal mesh. The mesh was so fine that it had to be spun by a stocking company. Doe s anyone know which stocking comapany did the work?

Lawren

[Sigrid]

Tough one! I searched for 20 minutes or so and only learned that Hughes Aircraft appears to be the prime contractor. Not likely that they fabricated the mesh for the antenna though.

I'd like to think the mesh was made by Hanes - there Silk Reflection thigh-highs are out of this world!

~Sigrid

[Brandy_Marie]

Well that's a tough one. Seeing as how I live in the Space Coast, quite an interesting one, though.

Sigrid, you are quite correct about Hughes; they didn't have anything to do with manufacturing the antenna in question. It was manufactured by Harris Corporation, the largest government contractor in our area. Unfortunately, my experience with Harris is that they are abnormally tight-lipped about anything, so I doubt we'll ever know the answer;unless we find someone who worked on the project.

If it helps, the gold-plated metal mesh was actually molybdinum.

Brandy Marie Devereaux

Okay, okay, Marianne, you got me. Kudos to you. It's not very often that someone else corrects me on spelling or grammar (I'm so anal-retentive about it) but that's "whut's I git fur tryin' to use dem dere big wurds."

[Marianne]

oohh, geek search!

I found the following clues. It was shipped TO Jpl.

The antenna was originally shipped to JPL in Pasadena, CA, by truck in its own special shipping container. In December 1985, the antenna, again in its own shipping container, was sent by truck to NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida to await launch. After Challenger, Galileo and its antenna had to be shipped back to JPL in late 1986. Finally, they were reshipped to KSC for integration and launch in 1989.

Source

That's about as far as I could get, I gave up searching the Nasa-3260 pdf file ( search for it yerself) which *might* contain the next clue...

[Marianne]

Well that's a tough one. Seeing as how I live in the Space Coast, quite an interesting one, though.

Sigrid, you are quite correct about Hughes; they didn't have anything to do with manufacturing the antenna in question. It was manufactured by Harris Corporation, the largest government contractor in our area. Unfortunately, my experience with Harris is that they are abnormally tight-lipped about anything, so I doubt we'll ever know the answer;unless we find someone who worked on the project.

If it helps, the gold-plated metal mesh was actually molybdinum.

Brandy Marie Devereaux

pbbbt. You misspelt molybdenum no geek hat for j00!

[DonnaT]

The mesh type high gain antenna used by Galileo had a weave like that used to make tricot stockings. Gold-plated molybedum was needed to keep the contact points of the mesh from corroding.

A mesh article, such as a reflector for radio frequencies, comprises glassy base fibers of high tensile strength, low elongation properties and low coefficient of expansion, the fibers being coated with a thin layer of metal. In a typical embodiment, the fibers are quartz coated with aluminum. The fibers are not interwoven and are bonded together at their intersections and to a peripheral ring support. These articles are lightweight, flexible and foldable and possess a "shape memory."

a foldable antenna reflector, particularly of large dimensions, for example adapted to fit out a telecommunications or direct television satellite. According to the invention, said reflector has a structure comprising a plurality of arms, each of which is articulated at the end of a frame element remote from the axis of the reflector, so that, when said frame elements are in opened out position, said arms project angularly with respect thereto so that said structure forms a sort of cradle in the concavity of which is disposed said opened out supple dish and, when the frame elements are in collapsed position, said arms are folded along the side of said frame elements inside the cradle, so that said structure then forms a sort of bundle of small diameter enclosing said collapsed supple dish. ... . In an advantageous embodiment, a wire of gold-plated molybdenum is used for making the dish 15, having a diameter of 50.mu. and constituted by three twisted strands. This yarn is knitted in moss stitch, the meshes having a diameter of 0.7 mm.

The reflective surface of spacecraft antennas is often constructed of woven or knitted wires or metallized polymeric yarns. An open mesh type of structure achieves a low mass/area ratio and reduces overall antenna weight. Mesh materials which have been used on spacecraft antennas include gold plated molybdenum wire and copper coated polyester yarns. While these materials have been satisfactory for parabolic antennas up to 9 meters in diameter, their coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) is excessive for the coming generation of very large antennas. The CTE of molybdenum and polyester is 9.times.10.sup.-6 /.degree. C. and 60.times.10.sup.-6 /.degree. C. respectively.

In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a telescoping deployable mesh antenna reflector for space communication applications and a method of deployment is provided. The antenna reflector includes a plurality of telescoping radially extending ribs between which a plurality of interconnected guylines are secured to form a wire truss structure. The telescoping radially extending ribs include pivotally coupled inner and outer ribs that are collapsed and folded to stow the antenna. A highly reflective wire woven mesh is connected to the front surface of the wire truss structure with flexible radially extending strip members allowing for folding and telescoping of the antenna reflector. ... .said wire woven mesh comprises gold plated molybdenum

Accordingly, wire mesh antenna such as that used on the Galileo appear to have been around a while. So I have my doubts that a stocking company made the antenna, but can't find proof one way or the other. Instead, since there were a number of patents in this regard, it seems more likely that the company that made the antenna had the weaving machine necessary to create a tricot mesh pattern.

[Sarah Ellis]

Flipping heck.. you girls are full of amazing things.. i'd have looked myself withouht the help of the scissor sisters and half a liter of vodka.. hehe, its 1.10AM here in the UK.. Oh BTW i knew it was Hughes but not the rest, lol, Satin xx