The University of Alabama in Huntsville s Propulsion Research Center has teamed with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) to research the effects of atomic oxygen (AO) bombardment on coated tether materials. Tethers Unlimited Inc. has provided several candidate tether materials with various coatings for AO exposure in MSFC s Atomic Oxygen Beam Facility. Additional samples were exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation at MSFC. AO erodes most organic materials, and ultraviolet radiation embrittles polymers. This test series was performed to determine the effect of AO and UV on the mechanical integrity of tether materials that were treated with AO-protective coatings, such as polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) or metallization. Both TUI's Multi-Application Survivable Tether (MAST) Experiment and Marshall Space Flight Center s Momentum Exchange Electrodynamic Reboost (MXER) programs will benefit from this research by helping to determine tether materials and coatings that give the longest life with the lowest mass penalty.
Space Environmental Effects on Coated Tether Materials
41st AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference ; 2005 ; Tucson, AZ, United States
2005-01-01
Preprint
No indication
English
Space Environmental Effects of Coated Tether Materials
AIAA | 2005
|Atomic Oxygen Effects on Coated Tether Materials
NTRS | 2005
|Atomic Oxygen Effects of Coated Tether Materials
NTIS | 2005
|Atomic Oxygen Effects on Coated Tether Materials
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2005
|Advances in space tether materials
AIAA | 1989
|