Heavy duty complete extension slides
Abstract
The selection from available commercial market of a set of slides to be used in an habitable pressurised module in space, to draw a 660 mm box out of a rack, up to a completely extracted position in a safely supported configuration, seems in principle not to be a complicated task. That was the first approach taken in the design process of the telescopic guides of the Crew Work Bench (CWB) included in the Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL), part of "ESA Microgravity Facilities for Columbus" within the Columbus Orbital Facility (COF) of the International Space Station (ISS). Nevertheless, common space compatible requirements such as materials, specific environmental loads, available envelope, total weight, etc., can make the selection of telescopic slides from commercial market unfeasible. A specific development to design space compatible telescopic slides for the CWB was undertaken. A set of heavy duty space compatible telescopic slides were designed, manufactured and tested. They should be operative in both, 1-g environment and in orbit, and additionally should withstand an inadvertent astronaut kick or bump of 556 N in any direction.
- Publication:
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9th European Space Mechanisms and Tribology Symposium
- Pub Date:
- September 2001
- Bibcode:
- 2001ESASP.480..351B
- Keywords:
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- Columbus Orbital Facility;
- ISS;
- Slides