Hughes Aircraft Company

Preston S Du Pont

Norman Bilow

Alois Wittmann

Robert E Ritter

Janet E Freeman

Fiber-reinforced syntactic foam composites having a low specific gravity and a low coefficient of thermal expansion suitable for forming lightweight structures for spacecraft applications are prepared from a mixture of a heat curable thermosetting resin, hollow microspheres having a diameter of about 5 to 200 micrometers and fibers having a length less than or equal to 250 micrometers.

Fiber-reinforced syntactic foam composites and method of forming same

A protective coating for solar cells, particularly solar cells positioned in space and which coating is a polyimide which is colorless, transparent, relatively non-brittle, has a high degree of thermal stability and readily transmits solar radiation without appreciable degradation. The coating is heat resistant and does not degrade significantly when exposed to ultraviolet radiation, and is highly effective in repelling low energy proton particles. In a preferred embodiment, the protective polyimide coating is a polymer having the following recurring structural unit: ##STR1##

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Northridge, CA, United States of America

Preston S Du Pont