# Mylar "space" blankets. Alternate uses.



## mycrofft (Apr 1, 2010)

Not just for astronauts anymore.
First the cautions; they tear, they conduct elecricity, they melt and burn, they can smother you. OK then!

They come in more than one form. The simplest is just silver Mylar without edging or backing. I have seen them with an insulating backing added and edging applied. Since Mylar strongly resists being pulled apart but can tear like tissue once started, you need to take that into consideration and maybe use tape to form gussets or eyelets. Wildland firefighting "shake and bakes" are super duper versions, but don't steal them. (Mylar will melt then burn if impinged by flame; shake n bakes have a thin reflective mylar layer laminted on, like firefighting bunker suits. 

1. Keeping warm/blanket: Wrap it around yourself. Stops wind and reflects heat back to you; also reflects heat away, and can conduct heat by contact. Takes up little room when stowed, hard to re-stow as small.
2. Improving a shelter: if you are in a shelter, either wrap it as above, or line part of the shelter with it to stop air leaks and reflect heat back. Not as easy to do as it sounds.
3. Heat/light reflector: rig to reflect back to you from fire, lantern, sun. Can help make you more visible but, at night, not as good as a white sheet etc. with light shining on it. (Aussies and others did that trick with bed sheets and porch lights or headlamps so Mercury and Gemini astronauts could see their front yards from space).
4. Radar corner: if airborne search and rescue is possible, especially if they are looking for a car or plane, you have two ways to rig two types of radar reflectorts which will give a sharp unambiguous return they will look at.

TYPES OF "CORNERS": the classic is like the corner of a cube. The open end will need to point pretty closely to the direction of search you anticipate. This has the best return and the narrowest angle of reflection.
The "doghouse" or trough type is much simpler. Erect two parallel bars, fix one edge of the blanket on each bar, and place a thin long stripped branch or straightened coat hanger on the blanket to define the reflecting corner (do not fix it in place) then space them apart until the hanging angle is close to 90 degrees. This will reflect best straight up, or back if you manage to fix it in a vertical position. Wider angle of reflection, not quite as strong as the true corner but obviously not natural.

Place a corner on an adjacent hill to draw searchers to your vicintiy or a visual signal pointing to you, or right  where you are.

You can do these using any metal, including aluminum foil, but it has to be unwrinkled and flat for the best result. Something you can use that baby warmer foil for besides sharing pizza!


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## LucidResq (Apr 1, 2010)

Mmm nothing like a cheap mylar bivy sack for survival training. I keep a travel hammock, one of these, a couple of individual space blankets, a tarp and some paracord in my pack for SAR. You should see the awesome shelters I've made with the above equipment plus some evergreen boughs for bedding and insulation. Sleep warm and cozy like a baby near a fire with the hammock and bivy alone. People always envy me on our annual survival overnights. Very little bulk and weight in the pack too. The hammock isn't necessary but very nice, keeps you off the ground.


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## thatJeffguy (May 5, 2010)

mycrofft said:


> Not just for astronauts anymore.
> First the cautions; they tear, they conduct elecricity, they melt and burn, they can smother you. OK then!
> 
> They come in more than one form. The simplest is just silver Mylar without edging or backing. I have seen them with an insulating backing added and edging applied. Since Mylar strongly resists being pulled apart but can tear like tissue once started, you need to take that into consideration and maybe use tape to form gussets or eyelets. Wildland firefighting "shake and bakes" are super duper versions, but don't steal them. (Mylar will melt then burn if impinged by flame; shake n bakes have a thin reflective mylar layer laminted on, like firefighting bunker suits.
> ...




I've been disappointed with mylar as a blanket, per se.  I prefer to use trashbags or a tarp to make a rain and wind resistant shelter, pine boughs for knsulation and the space blanket as a reflector on the opposite side of the fkire to blast the heat into my shelter.


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## Aidey (May 5, 2010)

You forgot one. 

5. To keep the space aliens/cameras/FBI from reading your brain waves. 

Not kidding. Call on a college campus for a kid off his meds. History of schizophrenia. Wouldn't come out of the bathroom because the FBI was after him. After trying to coax him out the medic went out and got the super cheap space blanket from the rig. The kid covered his head with it and came out calm as could be and was perfectly cooperative during the transport.


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## MrBrown (May 5, 2010)

And for tanning on the roof of the ambulance


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## Trayos (May 5, 2010)

thatJeffguy said:


> I prefer to use trashbags or a tarp to make a rain and wind resistant shelter, pine boughs for insulation and the space blanket as a reflector on the opposite side of the fire to blast the heat into my shelter.



Careful with blasting heat towards yourself if you intend to sleep- when your body rolls over because the heat is a uncomfortable, your moisture will freeze. If you ever have to sleep in an area, but wish to maintain light sources for signals/heat, make two appropriate sized fires on both sides of yourself (and not close enough to make your shelter _really _hot)


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## zmedic (May 23, 2010)

Aidey; said:
			
		

> You forgot one.
> 
> 5. To keep the space aliens/cameras/FBI from reading your brain waves.
> 
> Not kidding. Call on a college campus for a kid off his meds. History of schizophrenia. Wouldn't come out of the bathroom because the FBI was after him. After trying to coax him out the medic went out and got the super cheap space blanket from the rig. The kid covered his head with it and came out calm as could be and was perfectly cooperative during the transport.



You should be careful playing along with patient's delusions. One reason is because reinforcing them doesn't help in the long run. But the other reason is that you don't really understand the person's delusion system, and you run the risk that half way to the ambulance, or in the back alone, they will suddenly decide that the radio waves actually aren't being blocked. So don't rely on the fact that this delusional patient is cooperative for the moment. I'd still restrain those people both for their protection and for mine. (Our ambulance had soft restraints on the stretcher for the arms and legs, less traumatic than hard restraints but still protects me from getting punched by someone who is potentially uncooperative.)


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## Aidey (May 24, 2010)

This wasn't actually my patient, it was a co-workers. I agree that you can never really trust a delusional patient to stay calm, but sometimes you've gotta try what you can. They were planning on having the police tazing the pt after breaking the stall door down.


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## Outworld (Jun 29, 2010)

The best 'Space blanket' that I have found is the orange one with all of the survival information written on them. (and not because of all of that reading available). They are tough, easy to unfold and wrap, not real noisy. They come in 2 sizes. We call them 'Julie' bags, named after a student in one of our cave rescue classes in Costa Rica who became so hypothermic we had to bundle her and an Instructor in one of them and then heat the bag with a carbide lamp...Worked great. I carry one in my helmet, and another in my pack. Also good for a Hypothermia burrito wrap, and sturdy enough to be an okay ground cloth for sleeping on. I wish I could remember who packages them, I want to say Adventure Medical kits. be sure to get the ones with the writing, they are softer and work better.


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## Cake (Jul 7, 2010)

Outworld said:


> The best 'Space blanket' that I have found is the orange one with all of the survival information written on them. (and not because of all of that reading available). They are tough, easy to unfold and wrap, not real noisy. They come in 2 sizes. We call them 'Julie' bags, named after a student in one of our cave rescue classes in Costa Rica who became so hypothermic we had to bundle her and an Instructor in one of them and then heat the bag with a carbide lamp...Worked great. I carry one in my helmet, and another in my pack. Also good for a Hypothermia burrito wrap, and sturdy enough to be an okay ground cloth for sleeping on. I wish I could remember who packages them, I want to say Adventure Medical kits. be sure to get the ones with the writing, they are softer and work better.



I think you're talking about this: http://www.adventuremedicalkits.com...entials&prodname=Heatsheets® Survival Blanket

I've been eyeballing this Adventure Med Kits Bivy for a little while now.  I'm thinking about using that with my hammock to replace my sleeping bag during warmer weather.

Any other experiences with either of these 2 products?


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## Mountain Res-Q (Jul 7, 2010)

Cake said:


> I think you're talking about this: http://www.adventuremedicalkits.com...entials&prodname=Heatsheets® Survival Blanket
> 
> I've been eyeballing this Adventure Med Kits Bivy for a little while now.  I'm thinking about using that with my hammock to replace my sleeping bag during warmer weather.
> 
> Any other experiences with either of these 2 products?



Tried the Adventure Bivy...  meh...  didn't hold up for long.  I'll stick with a couple of mylar lined tarps for routine use (shelter) and a solid layering system.  I do carry 1 emergency mylar blanket and 1 mylar sack.  I have used the myler "blankets" (not really a blanket since there is no dead space) for myself and for patients.  If used correctly, they work at trapping heat.


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## yowzer (Jul 7, 2010)

Cake said:


> I've been eyeballing this Adventure Med Kits Bivy for a little while now.  I'm thinking about using that with my hammock to replace my sleeping bag during warmer weather.
> 
> Any other experiences with either of these 2 products?



I have one of those in my SAR pack. After a couple of times using it, it's now mostly held together with duct tape -- the stitching on the seams tears out easily. It doesn't have ventilation to speak of, so the inside gets damp, which is annoying at best. Nor is it extraordinarily warm. It'll do for late spring/summer/early fall, but it's not suitable for cold temperatures. On the plus side, it's a lot smaller and lighter than any of my sleeping bags. I tolerate it because I almost never need to use it; our missions rarely involve camping out in the field.


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## Cake (Jul 7, 2010)

you guys confirmed what I was thinking then.. not really a reusable piece of gear.  I'll stick with the cheaper one with writing on it.. hah


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## medic417 (Jul 7, 2010)

You can use them to cook food, basically a poor mans sun oven.


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## Outworld (Jul 11, 2010)

Cake said:


> I think you're talking about this: http://www.adventuremedicalkits.com...entials&prodname=Heatsheets® Survival Blanket
> 
> I've been eyeballing this Adventure Med Kits Bivy for a little while now.  I'm thinking about using that with my hammock to replace my sleeping bag during warmer weather.
> 
> Any other experiences with either of these 2 products?



Yes, that blanket is the one. 
The Bivy does not hold up well and I would pass on that item. They are a one use item.
Hammocks can get cold, even in the jungle sometimes. I put the space blanket under me, and if it cold enough, wrap the blanket and then pull a large trash bag over my head poncho style, keeps the blanket in place and adds another layer.
A surplus poncho liner is one of the best overall items to carry. You can pack em pretty tight, and they are great for using alone or in combo with a space blanket or garbage bag/ space blanket combo. I carry a poncho liner with me on every rescue or disaster response I go to.


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## mycrofft (Jul 12, 2010)

*Poncho liner and a poncho*

If you buy surplus, smell the poncho first.


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