Ground Testing of the MISSE-16 Materials

External spacecraft materials play an important role in satellite protection from the harsh
space environment. Research has shown that the physical, chemical, and optical properties of
matter change continuously as a result of exposure to solar radiation and aggressive chemical
species produced in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Thorough knowledge of the material properties
evolution throughout a planned mission lifetime helps to improve the reliability of spacecraft. Moreover, the establishment of correlation factors between true space exposure and accelerated
space weather experiments at ground facilities enables accurate prediction of on-orbit material
performance based on laboratory-based testing. The presented work aims to evaluate the
radiation effects of low Earth orbit (LEO) environment, namely, exposure to the high-energy
electrons and atomic oxygen (AO), of heritage and novel spacecraft materials selection. The
studied materials represent the “flight duplicates” of samples that are launched as a part of the
16th Materials International Space Station Experiment Flight Facility (MISSE-FF) mission in
2022.