Hazards protection for space suits and spacecraft

A flexible covering article for providing protection against the hazards of exposure to the environment of outer space and extraterrestrial surfaces, said covering article comprising:

• an outer layered section including an outermost lamina of woven expanded tetrafluoroethylene yarns for protecting against abrasion and tearing, an underlying lamina of interwoven meta-aramid fiber yarns and para-aramid fiber yarns which are also woven to the inner side of said outermost lamina section,
• means including a plurality of electrically conductive elements woven in said underlying lamina with said meta-aramid and para-aramid fiber yarns for distribution and dispersion of electrostatic charges which may accumulate on said outer layered section and for providing a potential discharge path for said charges, and
• chemical protection means in the form of a coating applied to the inward side of said interwoven meta-aramid and para-aramid fiber yarns for protecting against chemical attack from chemical contaminants comprised of spacecraft propellants;
• a middle section comprised of a plurality of successively adjacent thermal insulation layers in the form of thin films or fabrics of polymeric thermoplastic or thermoforming resin material, each of which is coated on one surface by a deposit of metallic material which exhibits a high degree of infra-red emissivity and low absorption of solar radiation,
• and a low thermal conductive spacer means for spacing each of said thermal insulation layers, to preclude thermal "shorting" between said thermal insulation layers;
• a flexible radiation attenuating section for protecting against secondary radiation produced by the bremsstrahlung effect and comprised of a layer of flexible binder material loaded with micron sized powder particles of a high density, high atomic number material uniformly dispersed therein;
• an innermost layer of woven polymeric thermoforming resin yarns for protecting against abrasion;
• and
• means for securing all of said layers of said covering together in a flexible laminated composite relationship.