Question Soyuz coloration

[Meyerm]

The soyuz spacecrafts used today are covered in a black thermal shielding fabric to protect them. While the fabric was always a part of soyuz since the beginning, they weren't always black. Earlier versions (as compared below) had a greenish thermal shield. I read a suggestion that it's black now to maximize effectiveness, but why was it green before? Did they simply not know black was a better color to use, or were other reasons at play?

Old (7k-TM)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...19_(Apollo_Soyuz_Test_Project)_spacecraft.jpg

New (TMA)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...t1.jpg/800px-Soyuz_TMA-7_spacecraft2edit1.jpg

 

[N_Molson]

I'm not sure I would describe the color of the TMA as "black" but...

A lot of Soviet-era hardware had that green insulation fabric. Maybe the color was simply related to the manufacturing techniques and materials they were using.

When they could, they used white paint (on the pic you posted, the non covered parts are white), certainly for thermal reasons.

A pic of Voskhod 1 in assembly, more precisely the "foldable" airlock :

Be cautious with pictures of Soviet origin though, because the film they were using had an obvious tendency to tint everything in green !

 

[orb]

<PostID: 209510>:

The thermal protection foil on Soyuz didn't actually change at all in history, it still has the same color as in 1968.

{...}

One more for the trivia collection: The same foil was also already used on Vostok.

 

[4throck]

Here we go again :hmm:!

I did a series of posts on this somewhere... I remember Stalin's limo and soviet green being discussed...
(http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=25067)

Basically, yes, soviet color film did give green tints, and the light inside the workshops is not white balanced.

Photos do show the same consistent greenish color on early Soyuz. It is simply not as saturated as is appears, being close to a neutral gray.

BUT this is an effect of complex light interaction with the thermal insulation...

Here are some photos I color correct from the thread I mentioned:

Salyut 7 + Soyuz is interesting, because the station and the spacecraft should look the same. Yet Salyut still looks green at the front, but when see up close (EVA photo) it is grey!

Yet, here a photo with good color that again shows the green tint:

So I'd say you can paint it green, but keep it very subdued and close to dark gray.