The Passive Optical Sample Assembly (POSA): I Experiment: First Flight Results and Conclusions

The Passive Optical Sample Assembly-I (POSA-I), part of the Mir Environmental Effects Payload (MEEP), was designed to study the combined effects of contamination, atomic oxygen, ultraviolet radiation, vacuum, thermal cycling, and other constituents of the space environment on spacecraft materials. The MEEP program is a Phase 1 International Space Station Risk Mitigation Experiment. SSP 30258 "Thermal Control Architectural Control Document", section 3.1.2 requires that International Space Station (ISS) external materials meet performance requirements when exposed to the external environment as defined in SSP 30426, "Space Station External Contamination Control Requirements." Contamination control documents call for less than 3 x 10(exp -7) gm/sq cm/yr of molecular contamination on a surface at 300 K at the Prime Measurement Points during quiescent periods and less than 1 x 10(exp-6) gm/sq cm/yr during non-quiescent periods. Assuming a density of 1.0 g/cu cm for the contaminant, this is roughly equivalent to 30-100 A per year. A previous Mir flight experiment (Guillaumon et al. 1991) measured 321-716 A per year. Were this to happen on ISS, the radiators would reach end-of-life properties much sooner than the planned 10 years. Therefore, POSA was proposed to expose ISS-baselined materials (such as Z93 white thermal control paint and chromic acid anodized aluminum) to the Mir environment and determine not only the level of contamination from an orbiting, active space station but also the effect of contamination on thermal optical properties. POSA-I consisted of nearly 400 samples of various candidate materials for ISS. Paint samples flown included Z-93 and YB-71 white thermal control paints and a new inorganic bright yellow paint htat can be utilized for astronaut visual aids.