An evaluation of grease type ball bearing lubricants operating in various environments /Status report no. 2/

Because many future spacecraft or space stations will require mechanisms to operate for long periods of time in environments which are inimical to most bearing lubricants, a series of tests has been started to evaluate 25 grease type lubricants in R-4 size bearings in five different environments for a 1 year period. Four repetitions of each test are made to provide statistical samples. These tests will be used to select from two to five lubricants for 5 year tests in the same environments. At the present time, approximately 30 test sets have been completed and 25 sets are underway. To date, best results in all environments have been obtained with a high viscosity index perfluoropolyether grease.