Development of a Flexible Solar Reflector for Geostationary Spacecraft

In order to avoid electrostatic discharge on satellites caused by the accumulation of electric charges on their external surface, thermal control coatings should have a surface resistivity between 106 Ω/square and 1010 Ω/square or a bulk conductivity higher than 10−8 S⋅cm−1. The polysiloxane resin of a cold thermal control coating, the flexible solar reflector (FSR), was filled with different conducting nanoparticles: indium tin oxide, zinc oxide and multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Adding conducting nanoparticles increased the electrical conductivity of the FSR but also degraded its thermooptical properties. A simulation test of electron bombardment in geostationary orbit was performed on some samples. The existence of electron bombardment induced conductivity allowed oxide‐filled composites to evacuate electric charges more effectively than the CNT‐filled composites. None of the composites exhibited the required properties for a new version of FSR for geostationary orbit. Although charge dissipatio...