Overview of the Natural Space Environment and ESA, JAXA, and NASA Materials Flight Experiments
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Natural Space Environment and ESA, JAXA, and NASA Materials Flight Experiments David L. Edwards, Adrian P. Tighe, Marc Van Eesbeek, Yugo Kimoto, and Kim K. de Groh
Abstract Space environmental effects on materials are very severe and complex because of the synergistic interaction of orbital environments such as high-energy radiation particles, atomic oxygen, micrometeoroids, orbital debris, and ultraviolet irradiation interacting synergistically, along with thermal exposure. In addition, surface degradation associated with contamination can negatively impact optics performance. Materials flight experiments are critical to understanding the engineering performance of materials exposed to specific space environments. Likewise, the spacecraft designer must have an understanding of the specific environment in which a spacecraft will operate, enabling appropriate selection of materials to maximize engineering performance, increase mission lifetimes, and reduce risk. This article will present a methodology for assessing the engineering performance of materials baselined for a specific spacecraft or mission. In addition, an overview of the space environment, from low Earth orbit to interplanetary space, will be provided along with an overview on the effects of the space environment on materials performance. The majority of this article is devoted to materials flight experiments from the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Some of the experiments reviewed include ESA’s Materials Exposure and Degradation Experiment on the International Space Station (ISS), JAXA’s Micro-Particles Capturer and Space Environment Exposure Device experiments on the ISS Service Module and on the ISS Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility, and NASA’s Long Duration Exposure Facility satellite and the Materials International Space Station Experiment series flown on the exterior of ISS.
Introduction The natural space environment is comprised of many individual constituents interacting spatially and temporally to form a synergistic dynamic system. The natural space environment consists of ionizing radiation, vacuum, solar flux, mete-
oroids, and elemental or molecular gases. These individual constituents have been studied, measured, characterized, and modeled.1–4 We are able to confidently predict characteristics such as flux, fluence, energy, density, intensity, direction-
MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 35 • JANUARY 2010 • www.mrs.org/bulletin
ality, and velocity. Technology improvements allow higher resolution measurements; computing efficiency provides higher precision modeling; and our understanding of the space environment constituency improves. This overview will provide a general description of the space environment and point to some key features that spacecraft designers need to consider to reduce risk and improve engineering performance. The best metric that spacecraft designers can use to assess the engineering performance of the space
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