Where in a spacecraft are adhesives most commonly or routinely used?
Are there specific spacecraft components or assemblies that are regularly built by using adhesives rather than other methods of attaching one component to the other?
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1$\begingroup$ To build honeycomb structures. $\endgroup$– UweMay 24, 2020 at 23:11
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3$\begingroup$ Welcome to Space Exploration Stack Exchange! This looks like the start of a good question, but it could be improved by referencing specific spacecraft, technologies, etc. This can be done either by doing some more work in the question to demonstrate an attempt to solve the question yourself, or by making a more focused question such as "are spacecraft heatshields attached by adhesives?". $\endgroup$– CourageousPotatoMay 25, 2020 at 1:51
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2$\begingroup$ @CourageousPotato I've made an edit to make it clear that these should be specific to spacecraft applications, but left it wide enough so that otherwise helpful answers won't be excluded. Do you think it looks okay now? $\endgroup$– uhohMay 25, 2020 at 2:05
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2$\begingroup$ @uhoh It's a small improvement, but yes. $\endgroup$– CourageousPotatoMay 25, 2020 at 2:11
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2$\begingroup$ The Velcro is stuck on by adhesives. $\endgroup$– Organic MarbleMay 25, 2020 at 20:08
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2 Answers
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Ceramic tiles for heat shields.
Because you cannot really weld ceramics to metal, and nuts and bolts are too heavy and vulnerable, the ships heat shield is usually bonded to the hull. The Space Shuttle used a menagerie of thousands of glued-on tiles to protect it during reentry. The Shuttle’s tiles were made of bonded silica fibers. Robust against heat, but not particularly durable against impact.
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5$\begingroup$ Welcome to Space! Nice answer. Along the same idea, the Apollo command module heat shields were themselves made of epoxy, injected into an aluminum honeycomb. $\endgroup$ May 25, 2020 at 2:40
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5$\begingroup$ @DrSheldon The Apollo heatshield did not use an aluminum honeycomb, it was a fiberglas honeycomb. The material for the honeycomb should have a high melting point and a low thermal conductivity, therefore glas, not aluminum. $\endgroup$– UweMay 25, 2020 at 20:03
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3$\begingroup$ And some poor technician had to use a caulking gun to shoot plastic goo into every single honeycomb cell. $\endgroup$– ikraseMay 26, 2020 at 10:38
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4$\begingroup$ @ikrase and they X-rayed every single one, and if there was a bubble, crack, or other void, they drilled it out and redid it. Extremely expensive work. $\endgroup$– TristanMay 26, 2020 at 14:36
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1$\begingroup$ Nitpick: Note that the TPS damage in the Columbia accident appears not to have been to the tiles, but to the Reinforced Carbon-Carbon (RCC) wing leading edge. $\endgroup$ May 26, 2020 at 15:24
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There can be a fuzzy differentiation between adhesives and resins used in composite structures such as Urethanes and Epoxies. These resins may be found in the internal composite structures.
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4$\begingroup$ Welcome to Stack Exchange! This is an important point that you've raised. Normally it would be posted as a comment rather than as an answer to the question, but SE doesn't let new users post comments on other questions until they reach 50 reputation points (which doesn't take long). I wonder if you can add a little bit more information to this and bring it up to the level of an answer somehow? For example if you mentioned an example or two of each and maybe added a supporting link, that would be great. Thanks! $\endgroup$– uhohMay 26, 2020 at 6:07