Space environmental effects on silvered Teflon thermal control surfaces

Abstract

Cumulative space environmental effects on silver/fluorinated ethylene propylene (Ag/FEP) were a function of exposure orientation. Samples from nineteen silvered Teflon (Ag/FEP) thermal control surfaces recovered from the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) were analyzed to determine changes in this material as a function of position on the spacecraft. Although solar absorptance and infrared emittance of measured thermal blanket specimens are relatively unchanged from control specimen values, significant changes in surface morphology, composition, and chemistry were observed. We hypothesize that the FEP surfaces on the LDEF are degraded by UV radiation at all orientations, but that the damaged material has been removed by erosion from the blankets exposed to atomic oxygen flux and that contamination is masking the damage in some areas on the trays flanking the trailing edge.