Completion Date
6-2025
Advisor(s)
Kira Abercromby
Abstract
In Low Earth Orbit (LEO), spacecraft are exposed to a harsh environment which includes atomic oxygen (AO) and vacuum ultraviolet radiation (VUV). AO interaction with spacecraft materials results in erosion, structural, and optical property degradation. This damage is often accelerated during concurrent vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation exposure. This study utilized laboratory equipment in the Cal Poly aerospace and materials engineering departments to characterize changes in material properties after AO and VUV radiation exposure. This proposal requested funds for a replacement bulb that will allow for two separate but related studies that investigate synergistic effects of AO and VUV on spacecraft materials. Using the purchased VUV lamp bulb allowed for synergistic testing to be performed and the data evaluated. However, due to further issues in lamp performance during testing, trend analysis, rather than robust statistical inferences, were drawn from the data collected. The trends suggest that VUV and AO interact synergistically when incident on the uncoated side of an aluminized Mylar sample, but there is no noticeable effects when exposed to the coated side.
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/bkendowments/117
Copyright
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.