An Experiment for Determining the Stability of Surface Coatings in Space Flight

Because of the difficulties involved in simulating the adverse effects of the space environment with ground-based facilities for the purpose of investigating surface coatings, the possibility of testing the stability of surfaces during flight in the actual space environment must be considered. A simple, straightforward method for measuring any changes in the thermal characteristics of a surface resulting from conditions in space flight is to measure shifts in temperature of the surface during exposure to sunlight, since any change in the ratio of solar absorptance to surface emittance alpha/epsilon will be reflected in a corresponding change in surface-temperature. This paper describes an experiment of this type which is planned for inclusion on a number of satellites.