RESULTS FROM THE SPACE-TECHNOLOGY-RESEARCH-VEHICLE-1A ATOMIC OXYGEN EXPERIMENT

An experiment to make in situ measurements of thermospheric atomic oxy gen fluxes and their effect on some common spacecraft materials has be en flown in orbit on board the Space Technology Research Vehicle la mi crosatellite. The results from active sensors were based on resistance measurements of silver films and were interpreted relative to space s imulations made in a ground-based pulsed laser atomic oxygen source. I t was concluded that silver resistance sensors can be used to measure atomic oxygen fluxes but are best suited to low flux environments, e.g ., <10(14) atoms cm(-2) s(-1). Some silver sensors mere overlaid with thin coatings to measure the erosion resistance of the coating materia ls. It was found that erosion rates were affected by the structure of the materials; this structure must therefore be taken into account in experiment and spacecraft design.