Re: (2660) Plastic Starships

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Date: Mon, 22 Jul 91 13:27:40 GMT-0:00
From: Hugh Schoenemann [email removed]

Then the problem of aging occurred to me.  Plastics  age  through
photo-chemical  reactions  caused  by  the interaction of natural
phenomena (sun, wind, rain, local soil etc.) with  the  plastic's
own  atomic  structure  (plastics-  or  organic chemists - please
shoot me down in flames if this is a misconception on  my  part).
This  can  be  useful,  for example when designing bio-degradable
plastics,  but would surely be an undesirable trait in  plastics-
for-space-vehicles  purposes.  Given that UV light (which clearly
lends a hand in the aging process) is shielded  somewhat  by  our
atmosphere (unless you live in Antarctica, that is), wouldn't the
situation be that much worse in vacuum where  no  such  shielding
takes place ? I suppose solving this problem might help solve the
next ...

I remember hearing years back that all plastics are, to a greater
or  lesser extent, porous.  Is this true ? How could this be com-
pensated for or, preferably, eliminated when considering  plastic
vehicles ?


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  A polymer coating would probably stop UV deterioration, or at least
slow it down considerably.  It would also neatly solve the problem of porousness.  Given sufficent tech level, a decent plastic could be impregnated with other non-metallic materials(it suddenly occurred to me what you're
getting at) for increased solidity.  It would also help if the ship was
designed/used for strictly non-atmospheric purposes |^>.
  Yeah, I could see these things in kit form, too("40 quid, mate--some resin,
a little Testors, and you're off! See yer on Jedispere!)
                                                  Mick