Abstract A critical evaluation of space flight experiments and ground-based testing results in LEO simulating facilities for Russian space materials and their functional US and European space materials counterparts, as well as predictive performance evaluation are presented and discussed. Results of long-term GEO imitating ground-based testing are presented also for selected advanced thermal control materials. In a number of Russian, Western and collaborative space materials experiments samples were installed on the external surfaces of the Space Station MIR and, for the last decade, on Russian or US segments of the International Space Station in removable cassettes for long-term exposure and brought back to Earth. In ground-based testing, various acceptable LEO-imitating conditions have been explored. Oxygen plasma testing has been used efficiently as a screening testing tool. Fast atomic oxygen testing conducted in collaborative projects at various facilities in US and Canada at FAO fluencies 1019–1021 at/cm2, accompanied by UV irradiation are compared with results on selected materials that were tested in a hyper-thermal O-plasma beam source at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of Moscow State University, Russia. Mass loss, change of thermal optical properties, morphology evolution and surface resistivity changes have been all analyzed using advanced analytical techniques. The influence of some aspects of space materials design and testing on the prediction and evaluation of functional performance and durability in space is discussed.
Critical Evaluation of Testing Results for Russian and Western Space Materials in Ground-Based Simulator Facilities and in Space Experiments
2013
2012-06-04
17 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
Fast atomic oxygen (FAO) , GEO space environment ground-based testing , ITO coatings , LEO space environment , Per-fluorinated polymers , Russian , Thermal control paints , Western space materials Engineering , Aerospace Technology and Astronautics , Extraterrestrial Physics, Space Sciences , Materials Science, general , Operating Procedures, Materials Treatment