Carbon/Carbon has many attributes that make it an attractive material for satellite applications. It is low in
density, is dimensionally stable under a wide variety of conditions, has very low thermal expansion, is relatively
low in cost, and is a mature technology. Moreover, the material is flexible enough to enable the designer to select
such variables as fiber type, fabric architecture, fiber volume, and high temperature processing and thus custom
tailor the physical and mechanical properties to his specific requirements. A wide range of properties are available
- densities from 1.5 to 1.9 g/cm3, room temperature Coefficients of Thermal Expansion (CTE) from -0.3x10-6to -1.3x10-6/K, room temperature thermal conductivities from 7 to 210 W/m.K, and modulus from 60 to 190
GPa. A new type of structure developed by CNRS on the space instrument SODISM uses Carbon/Carbon.
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