AFRL deploys 500 materials specimens aboard International Space Station

  • Published
  • By Pete Meltzer, Jr.,
  • Materials and Manufacturing Directorate
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  The Air Force Research Laboratory recently partnered with NASA to conduct materials experiments aboard the International Space Station.

The Laboratory's Materials and Manufacturing and Propulsion Directorates, working with NASA, the Air Force Academy, Sandia National Laboratories, U. S. Naval Research Laboratory, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Boeing, the Space Test Program, Aerospace Corp., deployed the sixth in a series of materials experiments to the ISS via the space shuttle.

The project incorporates 500 materials samples into two suitcase-like containers attached to the exterior of the ISS. The containers are fully opened and folded back to expose them to atomic oxygen bombardment, solar radiation, extreme temperature changes, and other severe space environmental factors. They will remain in that configuration until retrieved by ISS astronauts and brought back to Earth aboard a space shuttle.

"The ISS provides a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate and qualify promising new materials that may offer weight, performance and cost savings benefits, and to re-qualify existing materials," explained Shane Juhl, an engineer at AFRL and current program manager for the Materials on the International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) program.

"Due to the limited number of qualified materials for space, manufacturers tend to build spacecraft using existing qualified materials. MISSE offers a cost-effective means for testing new materials and re-qualifying existing ones whose suppliers or processing methods have undergone change over time," he continued.

"No single piece of equipment or facility currently exists that can simultaneously expose materials to all the damaging environmental effects of space. In the laboratory, samples can be exposed to only a limited number of simulated environments at a time. In space--the ultimate testing environment--samples are exposed to all the harsh realities of the space environment at once," Juhl explained.

Until now, AFRL/RX (Materials & Manufacturing Directorate has deployed only passive experiments to the ISS (experiments characterized before and after deployment). The ongoing mission, MISSE 6, incorporates eight active AFRL experiments that collect and store data in real time continuously or at set intervals for later analysis; a technical 'first' for the Directorate that "advances on-orbit research and further demonstrates the value of the ISS in materials testing," according to Juhl.

"The transition to more active experimentation will provide unprecedented information about the on-orbit effects on material properties of interest and will help reduce material screening and qualification costs. This will free up more funding for mission-critical programs," Juhl said.

MISSE was conceptualized by an innovative team of engineers and scientists at AFRL/RX Directorate and pacecraft manufacturers nearly a decade ago, and was set into motion August 10, 2001, with the successful deployment of MISSE 1 and MISSE 2.

MISSE 1 and 2 incorporated 908 experiments in two containers. AFRL provided a total of 171 material specimens. Some of the experiments were developed by elementary school students. MISSE 3 and 4 contained 873 samples; 90 from AFRL/RX. MISSE 5 incorporated 223 material samples; 25 from the Directorate. 

MISSE 6 is comprised of two containers and incorporates 40 samples from AFRL/RX, including the eight active experiments. According to Juhl, a seventh deployment is in the planning phase.

AFRL/RX experiments have included composites and nanocomposites, carbon foams, optical materials, thermal control and thermal protection coatings, thin films, photonic devices, resins, and many other materials specimens. These experiments could play an important role in determining the materials used for space missions tomorrow and well into the future.

Key AFRL/RX participants in MISSE since the program's inception have included: Eric J. Becker, Dr. Elizabeth S. Berman, Daniel A. Cleyrat, Stephanie Flanagan, 1st Lt. Stephen F. Noss, Michael Stropki, Patricia A. Valentino, and Stephan M. Wolanczyk. Several others within the AFRL/RX and AFRL communities have provided assistance in the MISSE program, Juhl said.