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MISSE PEACE Polymers: An International Space Station Environmental Exposure Experiment Being ConductedAs part of the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE), 41 different polymers are being exposed for approximately 1 1/2 years to the low-Earth-orbit (LEO) environment on the exterior of the International Space Station. MISSE is a materials flight experiment sponsored by the Air Force Research Lab/Materials Lab and NASA, and is the first external experiment on the space station. A similar set of 41 polymers will be flown as part of the Polymer Erosion and Contamination Experiment (PEACE) a shuttle flight experiment that is being developed at the NASA Glenn Research Center collaboratively with the Hathaway Brown School for girls. Therefore, these 41 polymers are collectively called the MISSE PEACE Polymers. The purpose of the MISSE PEACE Polymers experiment is to determine how durable polymers are in the LEO space environment where spacecraft, such as the space station, orbit. Polymers are commonly used as spacecraft materials because of their desirable properties such as good flexibility, low density, and certain electrical properties or optical properties (such as a low solar absorptance and high thermal emittance). Two examples of the use of polymers on the exterior of spacecraft exposed to the space environment include metalized Teflon FEP (fluorinated ethylene propylene, DuPont) thermal control materials on the Hubble Space Telescope, and polyimide Kapton (DuPont) solar array blankets.
Document ID
20050201903
Acquisition Source
Glenn Research Center
Document Type
Other
Authors
deGroh, Kim K.
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Banks, Bruce A.
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Hammerstrom, Anne
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Youngstrom, Erica
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Kaminski, Carolyn
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Marx, Laura
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Fine, Elizabeth
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Gummow, Jonathan D.
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Wright, Douglas
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Date Acquired
September 7, 2013
Publication Date
March 1, 2002
Publication Information
Publication: Research and Technology 2001
Subject Category
Nonmetallic Materials
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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