Basalt fiber materials developed by Zhejiang GBF Basalt Fiber Co. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]
Zhejiang GBF Basalt Fiber Co, based in Dongyang, a county-level city in Jinhua, developed key materials for the Chinese space station, according to local media outlets on April 23.
With the development of the aerospace industry, the amount of space debris objects continues to increase, with more than 18,000 large-scale space debris objects having been detected, posing a serious danger to spacecraft.
In order to keep the Chinese space station secure, China has used basalt fiber cloth to fill the defensive impact protection structural materials of the space station, so that the space station can withstand high-speed impacts by fragments up to 6.5 millimeters in diameter.
The basalt fiber cloth, developed by the Fifth Research Institute Space Station of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and Zhejiang GBF Basalt Fiber Co, can effectively crush, melt and even gasify the projectile and reduce the speed of the projectile, more than tripling the ability of the space station to withstand the impact of space debris at a speed of 6.5 km per second.
A director from Zhejiang GBF Basalt Fiber Co said that they began to develop basalt fiber cloth in 2014, and only achieved success after more than 20,000 tests. Their products exceed the protection design indicators of other countries' international space stations.
