Preliminary results of an atomic oxygen spaceflight experiment

An atomic oxygen (AO) experiment designed to measure the AO environment and the erosion rate of selected materials is currently flying on a microsatellite (STRV-la). The experiment comprised four bare silver resistance sensors and eight silver sensors with thin film overlays of polyethylene, PTFE, carbon and silica. Preliminary analysis of the results from the bare silver films shows good agreement between the measured AO environment with that of the theoretical ESABASE environmental estimates. The calculated erosion rate for PTFE is also in good agreement with that obtained by exposing an identical sensor in a laboratory simulation facility. As predicted, after 250 days into the flight, there is no change in the status of polyethylene, carbon and silica overlay sensors.