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Requirements for Spacecraft Materials
2.1 General Background capabilities of the assigned launch vehicle which will take
the satellite from the Earths surface and inject it into the
The Space Age began in 1957, with an 83 kg Russian desired orbit. The lighter the satellite, the cheaper will be the
Sputnik satellite bleeping greetings to a surprised world. launch costs. Another major performance factor, reliability,
Since that spectacular beginning, intensive effort has gone can also be purchased if money is preferentially funneled
into the scientic exploration of space, exploration of the into reliability and test programmes rather than launch
Moon and distant planets, manufacturing of materials in vehicles. The important point is that performance factors of
space laboratories, and exploiting orbiting satellites for weight, reliability, and cost are all interrelated. The designer
communication, navigation and observation of the Earth. of an applications satellite will be more willing to pay for the
The early steps have passed into history, and most equip- reliability level that would give him 10 years of operation
ment and instrumentation has been and will continue to be than the designer of a scientic satellite designed to shut off
replaced by lighter and more complex substitutes. The transmission after only one year when the mission objectives
remarkable achievements of the Apollo Lunar Exploration are attained.
Programme two decades ago still tend to overshadow the One of the major aims of the European satellite manu-
unmanned automated satellite flights, and it is not always facturer has been to set up a European communications
realized that spacecraft orbiting above all continents of the programme which will develop and launch long-life satel-
world have already revolutionized global communications, lites. A supporting technology programme has been under-
maritime navigation, and worldwide weather forecasting. taken to develop and qualify most of the critical subsystems
These satellites are now vital links in a global network. They that will enter the design of future operational satellites. An
would not have been economically or technically feasible experimental satellite (Orbital Test SatelliteOTS) was
before the advent of near-Earth space explorations. launched in 1978 to evaluate and test the performance of the
Satellite communications started on a commercial basis various subsystems of future European communication
with the launch of Early Bird in 1965, less than eight years satellite systems. OTS and its launcher are illustrated in
after the launch of the rst Sputnik. This was the rst Figs. 2.1a and 2.2. Its major subsystems under evaluation
satellite to remain stationary over the Earth, and it was able included:
to provide a continuous connection between any two Earth
stations. Until comparatively recently these so-called ap- communicationsto relay information (data and com-
plications satellites were merely assemblies of separately mands) between Earth and satellite and, in concept, to
designed components rather than thoughtfully integrated and from other spacecraft.
systems. Often component interfaces failed to match, power supplyto provide electrical power to all satellite
reducing the overall system performance. subsystems.
These satellites, and to a more limited extent the scien- on-board propulsionto provide thrust for orbit changes,
tic satellites, are now incorporating standardized subsys- station-keeping, and deorbiting.
tems in an attempt to optimize performance factors including Environmental controlto maintain specied tempera-
weight, reliability, and cost. tures, radiation levels, electromagnetic environment, etc.
It seems likely that the spacecraft designer has placed structureto support and maintain satellite conguration
greatest emphasis on mass, as this is usually set by the on the ground, during launch and in orbit.
Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 7

B.D. Dunn, Materials and Processes, Springer Praxis Books,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-23362-8_2
8 2 Requirements for Spacecraft Materials
Fig. 2.1 a OTS structural model during vibration testing in 1975. France, 15 March 2013. This communications satellite is 7.1 m high
Thermal blankets are not yet tted. This is the rst ESA communication (ESA). c These 9 m-high spike-lined walls enclose the hushed interior
satellite and has a height of 2.5 m (ESA). b View of the Alphasat of ESAs Maxwell test chamber, which isolates satellites from all
satellite, after tests in the Intespaces anechoic test chamber, Toulouse, external influences to assess their electromagnetic compatibility (ESA)
2.1 General Background 9
b Fig. 2.2 a Launch of the European orbital test satellite (OTS-2, in

1978) on a Thor Delta rocket at Cape Canaveral. The 2 TV channels
and 5000 telephone circuits operated without defects between 52
ground-stations (between Norway and Egypt) (ESA). b Launch of
Alphasaton the 25th July 2013, an Ariane 5 lifted off Europes
largest telecommunications satellite (ESA)
The general development plan for a new satellite type

such as OTS involves the building of several test models
such as a structural model, thermal model, and engineering
model (refurbished from the thermal model), before con-
structing the qualication model and nally a flight
spacecraft.
Alphasat, shown in Fig. 2.1b is a high-power telecom
satellite built by Astrium, through a publicprivate partner-
ship between ESA and UK operator Inmarsat. It is based on
the mighty Alphabus, the new European telecom platform
developed by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space under joint
contract from ESA and the French space agency, CNES.
Alphabus is Europes response to increased market pressure
for larger telecom payloads for direct-to-home TV broad-
casting, digital audio broadcasting, broadband access and
mobile services. Alphabus incorporates innovative tech-
nologies including:
electric propulsionto optimise the satellites mass in

favour of payload
modular payloadincluding an antenna module which
can be adapted for different missions
star trackersensure highly accurate attitude and orbit
control
lithium ion cell batteriescharged from high-perfor-
mance solar cells
Whereas OTS generated 1260 W from its pair of solar

panels, feeding to two 24 Ah NiCd batteries and had a weight
of only 1490 kg, Alphasat can accommodate missions with
up to 18 kW of payload power and has a weight of 6000 kg.
Organisations such as the EU, ESA and NASA use mea-
sures to assess the maturity of evolving technologies which
can be related to devices, materials, components, etc.
Regarding materials, mechanical parts and manufacturing
processes, a new breakthrough or invention will not be suit-
able for immediate use and some basic research will have to be
conducted. This may lead to the technology being assessed for
feasibility, for development and later the technology may be
demonstrated in a laboratory environment. Validation of the
new material may be made according to certain test methods.
Mechanical parts may be qualied and manufacturing pro-
cesses may be veried by the testing of technology
samplesthese are the steps usually taken in order to get projects. At the other end of the spectrum, manned flight
approvals for space use by authorities (ECSS-Q-STD-70 safety management will differentiate between systems
2014). As a guide, the following listing can be used to assess safety and payload safety. Space systems safety will be a
the level of readiness of any materials technology: trade-off between complex project elements using flight
proven technologieshere astronaut safety must be of
paramount importance. Payload safety will consider the
Technology Readiness Description materials, mechanical parts and manufacturing processes and
Level whether the payload is essential for flight operations and crew
TRL 1 Basic principles observed and safety. Payloads and experiments can fail and not cause a risk
reported to the astronauts. However, the materials from which they are
TRL 2 Technology concept and/or manufactured will be of particular concern as these may
application formulated operate beyond their intended temperatures; it is essential that
TRL 3 Analytical and experimental these, usually non-metallic materials, do not release toxic
critical function and/or charac- substances by off-gassing, nor any re hazard because of the
teristic proof-of-concept flammable nature of the piece-part.
TRL 4 Component and/or breadboard
validation in laboratory
environment 2.2 Considerations for Materials
TRL 5 Component and/or breadboard and Processes
validation in relevant
environment 2.2.1 General Considerations During
TRL 6 System/subsystem model or the Selection of Materials
prototype demonstration in a and Processes
relevant environment (ground or
space) The change of emphasis in Europe from building scientic
TRL 7 System prototype demonstration satellites during the 1970s with designed mission lives of
in a space environment one or two years to the production of a new generation of
TRL 8 Actual system completed and application satellites, which must be assured for periods of
Flight qualied through test greater than twenty years in a somewhat hostile space
and demonstration (ground or environment, has necessitated that a greater effort is placed
space) on conrming the reliability of many materials and tech-
TRL 9 Actual system Flight proven nologies which have previously been accepted as virtually
through successful mission fault-free. Additionally, the new modular approach and the
operations drive to standardize subsystems for easy and economical
adaptation for different satellite missions has led to long
The reader may consider the above Technology Readiness ground storage periods. This can cause material degradation
Levels (TRLs) during the selection of materials and processes problems, particularly the decay of liquid and solid fuels and
for a new application intended for use on board a spacecraft the general corrosion of sensitive surfaces and even stress
or even during the construction of a ground station (launch corrosion of structural elements. A listing of materials
site). Obviously for any technology: the lower the TRL the approved and utilized for the fabrication of a satellite such as
more time and effort will be required before the approving the aforementioned Orbital Test Satellite in 1975 included at
authority can give authorisation for its incorporation into a least 500 different organic and inorganic materials. Each was
space system. The concept of TRLs will not be addressed preliminarily approved for use in a given application, bear-
during the following chapters of this book as every approval ing in mind the environmental conditions it has been
of a space material, mechanism and process will depend on designed to withstand. The Declared Materials Lists asso-
the very precise requirements of a given space project. For ciated with multipurpose space platforms for large
some projects there may be an accepted higher level of risk telecommunications payloads, such as the 6.6 t Alphasat
involved during the selection of technologies. Low budget launched in 2013, involve more than 1000 different mate-
space flight experiments, providing they do not constitute a rials. Until the late 1980s metallic materials have been the
risk to the overall project, might choose to fly breadboard basic building materials of all satellites and launch vehicles
models that can give sufcient data return to university with only a limited number of inroads from carbon bre
2.2 Considerations for Materials and Processes 11
reinforced plastics (CFRP). Because of their exact alignment light (or one-millionth of an inch), a calculation error caused
requirements some solar panels, dish antennas, and antenna the mirror which was originally launched to have been
platforms are fabricated from CFRP which, because of its fabricated with a curvature that was too shallow with a total
small coefcient of expansion, will retain dimensional centre-to-edge error of about 2 m (or 1/50 thickness of a
accuracy under the changing temperature conditions of an human hair). The result was that light rays hitting the mirror
orbit (160 to +180 C). Launch vehicles, satellites, space edges eventually made focus to a point that was slightly
probes and manned modules are predominantly built by away from where light rays from the centre of the mirror
industrial concerns engaged in aircraft manufacture (e.g. focused: a defect called spherical aberration. The HST,
prime contractors such as Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed delayed three years by the Challenger disaster, was launched
Martin, Alenia, Aerospatiale and Astrium). Because of this, in April 1990. Despite the flawed mirror, which rendered
designers will prefer to choose structural and mechanical many of Hubbles initial observations fuzzy, the new
parts from traditional metal alloys and composites, and will spaceborne telescope quickly demonstrated the advantages
limit manufacturing to joining and nishing technologies of an orbiting platform free from the interference of the
which already exist in their respective plants. When com- Earths atmosphere. After the dramatic December 1993
pared to a mass production industry there is often little repair mission, using astronauts from Space Shuttle
incentive to promote the use of advanced materials and Endeavour to correct the mirror and solar panel (see Sect. 8.
alloys which may improve reliability and be weight-saving 2) problems, Hubble began to demonstrate its full potential
but will suffer the drawback of requiring costly fundamental to peer into the universe.
testing and qualication before being incorporated into space
hardware.
Discussions between customers, prime contractors and 2.2.2 Some Futuristic Ideas
their sub-tier suppliers involve contract requirement negoti-
ations related to Materials and Processes issues and a con- Advanced materials are nding more and more applications
siderable number of reviews will take into account such topics in new designs, and this is particularly true of reinforced
as design, materials selection, and fabrication processes. polymers based on carbon or Kevlar bres, clean materials
These are held throughout the various stages of every space (with low outgassing), and several new types of lightweight
project, from inception on the drawing board until the envi- metal alloys. The microminiature electronic circuits so
ronmental testing and qualication of manufactured hardware important for the relay of enormous volumes of data within a
prior to launch. However, it is not until the actual hardware is fraction of a second are also incorporating new materials
seen that one is struck by the results of cooperation between with unique physical characteristics. Microdevices continue
the many engineering disciplines. It is probable that the to be designed and prototyped (David 1996)today these
introduction of computer-aided design now means that are termed micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS).
spacecraft subassemblies and piece-parts are being fabricated Although many MEMS devices have been manufactured, to
to the closest tolerances ever achieved. The optimization of date, the only devices that have flown are accelerometers and
structural weight and the smaller design margins mean that a gyroscopes (de Rooij 2009). In the USA, the JPL Centre for
thorough knowledge of the materials selected for the appli- Space Microelectronics Technology has already produced a
cation must be well established. This is particularly true for micro seismometer having a diameter of 12 mm and a
new, advanced materials, as the small design margins means camera on a chip about the size of a ngernail. These kinds
there is no longer a reserve of strength built into the structure, of advancement will certainly lead to smaller, lighter, and
as was the case for earlier spacecraft, to cover ignorance of less costly spacecraft for the future. Even the so-called nano
design loads or stress intensities. The safety margins required satellite, weighing about 12 kg, is thought to be feasible
of materials are real, but the over-conservative designs orig- due to breakthroughs in small-scale engineering of MEMS.
inating from so-called gloom factors or scatter in materials The cost of launching a satellite into LEO by the Space
properties should be a thing of the past. Shuttle was about 14,000 per kilogram and now, 5000 to
To illustrate the accuracy demanded of modern machin- 12,000 per kilogram when an ELV is selected. Costs to
ing capabilities one can consider the unfortunate situation of place a spacecraft into a geosynchronous transfer orbit
the flawed primary mirror of the Hubble Space Telescope (GTO) are estimated to be between and 20,000 per kilo-
(HST). The prime objective of the HST mission was to gram. Either launch vehicles should become less expensive,
obtain images of astronomical objects in approximately ten or satellites need redesigning to become far smaller and
times sharper detail than that obtained by ground-based lighter so that multiple payloads (or even nanosats) can be
telescopes. The HST 2.4 m mirror was designed to be a launched simultaneously. A proliferation in the number of
precisely calculated hyperboloid. Although the mirror is miniaturised satellites (often referred to as CubeSats) have
actually smooth to a precision of 1/64 the wavelength of been built by companies such as Clyde Space and SSTL
(now part of Airbus) but probably the majority of those face. Similarly, custom compositions can be 3D printed so
presently in orbit originate from schools and universities. that undesirable compositions (possibly brittle intermetallic
These have low construction costs combined with fewer compounds, magnetic phases or corrodible compounds) in
materials and processes requirements. Many have applica- any binary or ternary phase diagram can be avoided by only
tions beyond those of academic research or technology depositing the useful compositions. The waste-, weight- and
demonstration, and are used for Earth observation and money-saving attributes of AM have already attracted
defense purposes. manufacturers in all elds of advanced technology to
The future will see more advanced manufacturing pro- incorporate AM into the production lines for their cus-
cesses involved with the construction of space hardware tomized parts. These include heat-resistant bosses for turbine
even traditional methods such as casting and forging will cases, large bearing housings, rocket engine injectors,
probably be to closer specication and under more highly landing gear support struts, and numerous spare parts.
inert atmospheres. The autoclave curing of composites will Creative endeavors, like that noted in Fig. 2.3, may even
be done under clean conditions without the use of low enable additive layer manufacturing (ALM) to print a hab-
volatile organic materials and any mold release agents will itable structure on the Moon (Redahan 2014). Figure 2.3a
not contain silicones as they are difcult to remove prior to illustrates how functional habitation modules could be
painting. Friction stir welding and FricRiveting can be brought from Earth; the surface of the thin-walled inflatable
envisaged for joining metals to thermoplastics; and laser structures would then be coated by 3-D printing a powder
materials processing will involve localized, intense heating made entirely of regolith, having a particle size of around
of solid targets and components by laser, to achieve ultrafast, 200 m, onto the thin-wall until a sufciently large wall
novel and economic joining and surface engineering. thickness could be built up to protect human space-workers
It used to be impossible to select a material without a full from radiation and micrometeoroids. Regolith is the name
knowledge of how it might best be processed into a nal given to lunar dust and this local resource has already been
piece-partbut today it seems that 3D printing has opened encountered by humans and analyzed with respect to particle
up a world of endless possibilities for designing and creating size and composition (see Fig. 2.3b, c). Quantitative optical
everything from a complex space mechanism to printed and electron-probe studies by the UK Institute of Geological
chocolates and foods for astronauts! 3D printing, also known Sciences (Simpson 1970) have shown that lunar samples can
as additive manufacturing (AM), produces three- contain ilmenite, pyroxene, chrome-titanium spinel, troilite,
dimensional items by printing them, layer-by-layer from native iron, iron-nickel alloy, and even native copper (as
raw ingredients consisting of powdered plastics, aluminium shown in Fig. 8.1). This concept for constructing a human
alloys, titanium alloys, low expansion alloys and other outpost on the Moon using lunar soil, and ways to monitor
spacecraft materials. The most usual processing method is to the buildings progress from Earth by means of an industrial
introduce metal powder into a laser beama precise depo- CCD camera positioned on the printer, have been described
sition of either sintered or melted powder is directed onto a by Ceccanti (2010) and Colla (2014).
flat table. The laser beam is controlled by CAD programs to Another rapid prototyping process that demonstrates
raster across the sintered metal powder layer so consolidat- great promise has been described by Maxwell et al. (2013).
ing the deposit before another layer is added. The item is Known as Hyperbaric Pressure Laser Chemical Vapour
then built up, layer-by-layer to create a net-shaped part. This Deposition (HP-LCVD), this rapid prototyping process
revolutionary rapid protyping process can now be used to incorporates a mixture of reactive gases into which laser
create nalized spacecraft parts with a 40 % weight saving. beams penetrate for the growth of materials from atomic
Some improvements in the chemical purity of the powders level to large structures by means of thermally- or
used should increase yields to 100 % and, already, a 3D photolytically-induced decomposition of the gaseous pre-
printer is in operation on the International Space station. cursor. Exploitation of this HP-LCVD process, as prescribed
This rst 3D printing in space was performed in December by Dynetics and the NASA Marshall Space Centre (Maxwell
2014 by Butch Wilmore as part of a Zero gravity demon- et al. 2013), may enable 3D rapid prototyping in-space for
strationengineers up-linked a custom-made digital design the fabrication of components, replacement parts and even
le of a ratchet wrench to the 3D printer and produced a tool nuclear thermal propulsion systemsby the use of precursor
measuring 11.4 cm in length. This process will enable fragile gases and raw materials found, often in abundance, within
items to be manufactured in space without the need to our own Solar System.
incorporate robustness and extra weight for surviving the Numerous advanced materials and manufacturing tech-
shocks, vibration and mechanical loads encountered during niques will be individually described in Chap. 4.
launch. The deposition of materials can be so-called, func-
tionally graded, permitting one face of the deposit to have
totally different properties when compared to the opposite
Fig. 2.3 a An artists impression of an igloo, built on the Moon by cycling. Concept and illustration courtesy of ESA and architects Foster
means of a 3D printer attached to the arm of the robotic vehicle seen to + Partners. b Apollo 11 astronauts footprint in lunar soil, made up of
the right. Printing powder material is Moon dust (regolith), processed small, dust-like particles of regolith (courtesy NASA photo
into a cell-like structure of high strengththe idea is to initially inflate AS11-40-5877). c Grain size distribution of lunar soil from three
a thin folded dome brought from Earth and protect it with a cellular different sites; about 50 % is greater than 100 m from Heiken et al.
shell using the 3D printerthe pressurised enclosure so sheilds (1974)
astronauts from solar radiation, micrometerites and severe thermal
Table 2.1 Static corrosion potential of metals and alloys (de Rooij 1989a)
Material EMF Potential
The metals having the greater negative EMF will tend to corrode and form EMF between a calomel electrode and a 3.5 % NaCl water
oxides solution (V)
Platinum +0.17
Carbon +0.15
Gold +0.15
Rhenium +0.08
Rhodium +0.05
Tantalum +0.04
Silver 0.03
Ag10Cu braze alloy 0.06
A286 (15Cr, 25Ni, Mo, Ti, V) passive 0.07
AISI 316 (18Cr, 13Ni, 2Mo, rem Fe) passive 0.07
AISI 321 (18Cr, 10Ni, 0.4Ti) passive 0.08
AISI 347 (18Cr, 12Ni, +Nb, rem Fe) passive 0.08
AISI 301 (17Cr, 7Ni) passive 0.09
AISI 304 (19Cr, 10Ni, rem Fe) passive 0.10
Hastelloy C (17Mo, 15Cr, 5W,6Fe, rem Ni) passive 0.10
Nichrome (80Ni, 20Cr) passive 0.10
Monel 60 (65Ni, 0.2Fe, 3.5Mn, 2Ti, 27Cu) 0.10
Inconel 92 (71Ni, 16Cr, 7Fe, 3Ti, 2Mn) passive 0.11
17-7PH stainless st. (17Cr, 7Ni, 1.1Al) passive 0.11
AISI 309 (23Cr, 13Ni) passive 0.11
Titanium 0.12
Monel 400 (32Cu, 2.5Fe, 2Mn, rem Ni) 0.12
CDA 442 (71Cu, 1Sn, 38Zn) 0.12
CD A 715 (70Cu, 30Ni) 0.12
Molybdenum 0.12
MP35N (Ni, 35Co, 2.0Cr, 10Mo) passive 0.15
CDA 510 (96Cu, 4Sn, P) phosphor bronze 0.16
AISI 420 (0.35C, 13Cr, rem Fe) passive 0.17
AISI 434 (0.12C, 17Cr, 1Mo, rem Fe) passive 0.17
Bismuth 0.17
Waspaloy (59Ni, 19.5Cr, 13.5Co, 4Mo) passive 0.17
Nickel passive 0.18
Monel 67 (67.5Cu, 31Ni, 0.3Ti, 0.5Fe) 0.18
Copper phosphorus (4.5P, rem Cu) 0.18
Copper 0.20
CDA 110 (electrolytic tough pitch) 0.20
CDA 172 (2Be, rem Cu) 0.20
Gold-germanium solder (12Ge, rem Au) 0.20
Copper-Gold (25Au, rem Cu) 0.20
AISI 440B (17Cr, 0.5Mo, rem Fe) passive 0.23
(continued)
Table 2.1 (continued)

oxides solution (V)
Ti6A14 V (6A1.4 V, rem Ti) 0.24
Silicon 0.24
Tungsten carbide (94WC, 6Co) 0.25
CDA 240 (80Cu, 20Zn) 0.25
CDA 220 (90Cu, 10Zn) 0.25
CDA 752 (65Cu, 18Ni, 17Zn) 0.25
CDA 180 (60Cu, 40Zn) 0.26
CDA 464 (60Cu, 1Sn, 39Zn) 0.26
CDA 270 (63Cu, 37Zn) 0.26
CDA 298 (52Cu, 48Zn) 0.27
Nichrome 80/20 (80Ni, 20Cr) active 0.27
CDA 521 (7Sn, rem Cu) 0.27
CuA110Fe (10A1.3Fe, rem Cu) 0.27
Armco 21-6-0 (22Cr, 12Ni, rem Fe) 0.27
Inconel 92 (71Ni,16Cr, 7Fe, 3Ti, 2Mn) active 0.28
CuA112 (12Al, rem Cu) 0.29
Niobium (1Zr, rem Nb) 0.30
Tungsten 0.30
Nickel active 0.30
Kovar, Nilo K (29Ni, 17Co, rem Fe) 0.30
Chromium active 0.31
Cobalt 0.32
Nitinol (45Ti, 55Ni) 0.33
Invar (36Ni, rem Fe) 0.38
Cerrotric (42Sn, rem Bi) 0.39
SnAg4C3.5 solder 0.42
Sn95Ag4.9In0.1 solder 0.43
SnAg4 solder 0.46
SnAg5 solder 0.46
Tin 0.46
Sn10Sb solder 0.48
Indalloy no. 10 (75Pb.251n) solder 0.48
Indalloy no. 7 (50Pb,501n) solder 0.49
Lead 0.50
Sn63 (63Sn, 37Pb) solder 0.51
Sn60 (60Sn, 40Pb) solder 0.51
Sn62Ag2 (62Sn, 36Pb, 2Ag) solder 0.51
Sn59Sb2 (59Sn, 39Pb, 2Sb) solder 0.51
Sn60Pb39.5Cu0.12P0.9 solder 0.51
PbSn5Agl.5 solder 0.51
Mild steel 0.52
(continued)

oxides solution (V)
AISI 304 (19Cr, 10Ni, rem Fe) active 0.52
AISI 420 (0.35C, 13Cr, rem Fe) active 0.52
AA 2219-T3.T4 (6.3Cu, 0.3Mn, 0.18Zr, 0.1V, 0.06Ti, rem Al) 0.56
AISI 440B (17Cr, 0.5Mo, rem Fe) active 0.59
AA 2014-T4 (4.5Cu, 1Fe, 1Si, 0.15Ti, rem Al) 0.61
AA 2017-T4 (4Cu,1Fe,1 Mg,0.1Cr,rem Al) 0.61
AA 2024-T3 (4.5Cu, 1.5 Mg, 0.6Mn, rem Al) 0.62
AA B295.0-T6 (2.5Si, 1.2Fe, 4.5Cu, rem Al) casting 0.63
In75Pb25 solder 0.64
Indalloy No. 1 (50In, 50Sn) solder 0.65
AA 380.0-F (8.5Si, 2Fe, 3.5Cu, rem Al) casting 0.66
AA 319.0-F (6Si, 1Fe, 3.5Cu, rem Al) casting 0.66
AA 333-0-F (9Si.1Fe, 3.5Cu, rem Al) casting 0.66
Indium 0.67
AA 2014-T6 (4.5Cu, 1Fe, 1Si, 0.15Ti, rem Al) 0.69
Cadmium 0.70
AA 2024-T81 (4.5Cu, 1.5Mg, 0.6Mn, rem Al) 0.71
AA 2219-T6,T8 (6.3Cu, 0.3Mn0.18Zr, 0.1V, 0.06Ti, rem Al) 0.72
AA 6061-T4 (1 Mg, 0.6Si, 0.25Cu, 0.2Cr, rem Al) 0.72
AA 4043 (12Si, 1Cu, 1Mg, rem Al) 0.74
AA 6151 (1 Mg, 1Fe, 0.25Sn, 0.15Ti, rem Al) 0.74
AA 7075-T6 (5.6Zn, 2.5Mg, 1.6Cu, 0.3Cru.03Cr, rem Al) 0.74
AA 7178-T6 (6.8Zn, 32Mg, 2Cu, 0.2Ti, rem Al) 0.74
AA 1160 (98.4Al) 0.75
Aluminium 0.75
AA 5356 (5Zn, 0.1Ti, 0.1Cr, rem Al) 0.75
AA 5554 (5 Mg, 1Mn, 0.25Zn, 0.2Cr, rem Al) 0.75
AA 1050 (99.5Al) 0.75
Al-3Li 0.75
AA 1100 (99.0Al) 0.75
AA 3003 (1.2Mn, rem Al) 0.75
AA 6151 (1Mg, 1Fe,0.8Mn, 0.25Zn, 0.15Ti, rem Al) 0.75
AA 6053 (1.3Mg, 0.5Si, 0.35Cr, rem Al) 0.75
AA 6061-T6 (1Mg, 0.6Si, 0.25Cu, 0.2Cr, rem Al) 0.75
AA 6063 (0.7Mg, 0.4Si, rem Al) 0.75
Alclad 2014 (4.5Cu, 1Fe, 1Si, 0.15Ti, rem Al) 0.75
Alcald 2024 (4.5Cu, 1.5Mg, 0.1Cr, rem Al, Al-clad) 0.75
AA 3004 (1.5Mn, rem Al) 0.76
AA 1060 (99.6Al) 0.76
AA 5050 (1.5Mg, rem Al) 0.76
AA 7075-T73 (5.6Zn,2.5 Mg,1.6Cu,0.3Cr,rem Al) 0.76
AA 5052 (2.5Mg, 0.25Cr, rem Al) 0.77
AA 5086 (4Mg, 0.5Mn, rem Al) 0.77
(continued)

oxides solution (V)
AA 5154 (3.Mg, 0.25Cr, rem Al) 0.78
AA 5454 (2.8Mg, 1Mn, 0.2Ti, 0.1Cu, 0.2Cr, rem Al) 0.78
AA 4047 (12Si, rem Al) 0.78
Al-C 0.78
AA 5056 (5.2Mg, 0.1Mn, 0.1Cr, rem Al) 0.79
AA 7079T6 (4.3Zn, 3.3Mg, 0.6Cu, 0.2Mn, 0.2Cr, rem Al) 0.79
AA 5456 (5Mg, 0.7Mn, 0.15Cu, 0.15Cr, rem Al) 0.79
AA 5083 (4.5Mg, 0.7Mn, rem Al) 0.79
AA 7072 (1Zn, 0.5Si, 0.3Cr, rem Al) 0.87
Beryllium 0.97
Zinc 1.03
Manganese 1.21
Erbium 1.34
Electron (4Zn, 0.7Zr, rem Mg) 1.55
ZW3 (3Zn, 0.5Zr, rem Mg) 1.57
AZ61 (6Al, 1Zn, 0.3Mn, rem Mg) 1.57
AZ31B (3Al, 1Zn, rem Mg) 1.60
Magnesium 1.60
HK31A (0.7Zr, 3Th, rem Mg) 1.61
Notes to Table 2.1
Compatible material couples are considered to have a maximum potential difference of
0.25 V for non-cleanroom environments
0.50 V for cleanroom or hermetically sealed environments
This galvanic series chart is useful for a rst approximation in selecting materials for corrosion control, but may be too simplistic for further
dependence. It provides no information concerning corrosion rates or what will happen when three or more metals are electrically coupled. Service
conditions such as ionic concentration, aeration, metal purity, etc. can change relative positions. Reversals, especially with metals that are very
close in the series, such as steel and aluminium, can cause serious service problems, and specialized polarization studies are then recommended
The majority of alloys present in this Table can be referred to in Appendix 6 which lists specication number, composition limits and equivalent
British, French, German and US standards
2.2.3 Some Basic Considerations Regarding Rooij 1989a) and is presented in Table 2.1. However, de
Corrosion Prevention Rooij has simplied this Table into Groupings of metallic
alloys and the modied tabulation now appears as shown in
It is necessary to ensure that any newly selected material will Table 2.2. The material may need a high resistance to Stress
retain its functional properties during all stages of the Corrosion Cracking (SCC) before launch, and in such cases
spacecrafts designed life, up to the end of the mission. can be selected from those alloys listed in Table 2.3.
During manufacturing, the material must not degrade The primary and secondary structures will be made from
because of contamination from processing steps such as the light alloys based on aluminium and magnesium, together
release agents used for items moulded from CFRP, or by with titanium and to a very limited extent beryllium. Nickel
cutting oils used in the machining of alloys. Galvanic and alloys are often selected for their high-temperature perfor-
general surface corrosion must be avoided during environ- mance and oxidation resistance; they are often known by
mental testing and ground storage by the correct selection of trade names, rather than by their specication code numbers.
surface nishes such as anodic lms, chemical conversion Commercially pure nickel, easy to form into complex
lms, and paints. When electrical grounding is required, shapes, is used in the construction of spacecraft electronics
only contacts having a compatible coupling of less than where its electrical and magnetic properties are crucial.
0.5 V should be chosen. The static corrosion potential for a Mechanical designers often select Inconel alloys 600 and
large number of metals and alloys has been established (de 625 because they appear in Table 2.3, but it has recently
Table 2.2 Suggested compatible couples for bimetallic contacts (after de Rooij, based on Table 2.1)
Key
0Can be used without restriction
1Can be used in a non-controlled environment (e.g. assembly area and general non-clean room environmnet)
2Can be used in a clean room environment
3Need specic measures to avoid corrosion when these combinations are selected
Table 2.3 Alloys with high resistance to stress-corrosion cracking Table 2.3 (continued)
Steel alloys Aluminium alloys
Alloy Condition 7050 T73 A712.0, C712.0 As cast
Carbon steel (1000 series) Below 180 ksi 7475 T73
UTS Copper alloys
Low alloy steel (4130, 4340, D6AC, etc.) Below 180 ksi
CDA No.h Condition (% cold rolled)i
UTS
110 37
Music wire (ASTM 228) Cold drawn
170 AT, HT.j
1095 spring steel Tempered
172 AT, HT.j
HY 80 steel Tempered
194 37
195 90
230 40
200 series stainless steel (unsensitized) All
280 0
300 series stainless steel (unsensitized)a All
422 37
400 series ferritic stainless steel (404, 430, All
444, etc.) 443 10
Nitronic 32 Annealed 510 37
b 521 37
Nitronic 33 Annealed
b 524 0
Nitronic 40 (formerly 21-6-9) Annealed
A-286 stainless steel All 606 0
AM-350 stainless steel SCT 1000 and 619 40 (9 % B phase)
above 619 40 (95 % B phase)
AM-350 stainless steel SCT 1000 and 655 0
above
688 40
AM-362 (Almar 362) stainless steel 3 h. at 1000 F
704 0
Carpenter 20Cb-3 stainless steel All
706 50
Carpenter 20Cb-3 stainless steel All
710 0
Custom 450 stainless steel H1000 and above
715 0
Custom 455 stainless steel H1000 and above
725 50 Annealed
15-5PH stainless steel H1000 and above
Nickel alloys
PH15-7Mo stainless steel CH900
Alloy Conditions
17-7PH stainless steel CH900
Glass Seal 52 CR (51Ni-49Fe) All
Aluminium alloys
Invar 36 (36Ni-64Fe) All
Wrought Cast
Hastelloy B Solution heat treated
Alloyc Temperd Alloye Temper
Hastelloy C All
1000 series All 319.0, A319.0 As cast
Hastelloy X All
2011 T8 333.0, A333.0 As cast
Incoloy 800 All
2024 rod, bar T8 355.0, C355.0 T6
Incoloy 901 All
2219 T6, T8 356.0, A356.0 All
Incoloy 903 All
2418 T8
Inconel 600 Annealed
2618 T6 357.0 All
Inconel 625 Annealed
3000 series All B358.0 (Tens-50) All
Inconel 718 All
5000 series Allf, g
359.0 All
Inconel X-750 All
6000 series All 380.0, A380.0 As cast
Monel K-500 All
7049 T73 514.0 (214) As castg
Ni-Span-C 902 All
7149 T73 518.0 (218) As castg
Rene 41 All
7050 T73 535.0 (Almag.35) As castg
(continued)
(continued)
Table 2.3 (continued) All the classical assembly methods are employed: weld-
Nickel alloys ing, brazing, soldering, riveting, bolting, and adhesive
Unitemp 212 All bonding. It is important to ensure the joining processes
themselves have not degraded the materials surface or stress
Waspaloy All
corrosion resistance. (Heating can modify an alloys
Miscellaneous alloys
microstructure, weld metal and heat affected zones will be
Alloy Conditions different to the parent metal, braze metal may be noble to the
Beryllium S-200C Annealed remaining surfaces which can preferentially corrode,
HS25 (L605) All mechanical joints can have re-entrant faces that retain water
HS 188 All and cause pitting, even cured resins may release acids that
MP35 N Cold worked and aged damage the surrounding surfaces). Generally, aircraft
MP159 Cold worked and aged
industry manufacturing standards are followed, and much
attention is given to process control and there is a need to
Titanium 3Al-2.5 V All
evaluate all process used to join together structural and
Titanium 5Al-2.5SN All
electrical parts.
Titanium 6Al-4 V All
Titanium 10Fe-2 V-3Al All
Titanium 13V-11Cr-3Al All 2.2.4 Space Projects Phases
Titanium IMI 550 Al and Management Events
Magnesium MIA All
Magnesium LA141 Stabilized
It is important to note that before a satellite becomes fully
operational in orbit its subsystems, mechanisms, and elec-
Magnesium LAZ933 All
a
tronics will have been subjected to the following main
Including weldments of 304L, 316L, 321 and 347
b environmental conditions:
Including weldments
c
Including weldments of the weldable alloys
d
Mechanically stress relieved (TX5X or TX5XX) where specied (A) Ground activities:
e
The former designation is shown in parentheses where signicantly Operation for test and checkout
different. See Appendix 5 for temper designations
f Handling
High magnesium alloys 5456, 5083, and 5086 should be used in
controlled tempers (H111, H112, H116, H117, H323, H343) for Transportation
resistance to SCC and exfoliation Storage
g
Alloys with magnesium content greater than 3.0 percent are not Exposure to the elements
recommended for high-temperature application, 66C (150F) and
(B) Subjection to launch and ascent:
above
h
Copper Development Association alloy number Acceleration and shock
i
Maximum percent cold rolled for which SCC data are available Vibration and acoustic noise and possibly contact with
j
ATannealed and precipitation hardened reactive fuels, oxidizers, and temperature extremes
HTwork hardened and precipitation hardened
Pyrotechnic shock
Notes to Table 2.3
Data are compiled from NASA MSFC Spec 522B and (C) Transfer to operational orbit position:
ECSS-Q-ST-70-36. Recent issues of these documents should be Thermal cycling due to exposure to the Sun and eclipse
consulted for classication of alloys with both a moderate and a low Ultrahigh vacuum
resistance to stress corrosion cracking. Appendix 5 describes the
Radiationelectromagnetic and penetrating particles
aluminium alloy temper designations. A search through Appendix 6
will indicate similar European alloys Zero gravity
been acknowledged that these alloys soften, and can suffer The new millennium saw a great increase in the size and
from SCC in pure water, at temperatures above 300 C complexity of spacecraft. This has necessitated ground test-
(steam generators for nuclear plants). It may be wiser to use ing facilities to become modernized, physically larger, and
a development of the 625 alloy when high temperatures may more sophisticated for the exposure of space hardware to the
be expected, for instance in propulsion systems. This environments listed in A to C above. The Test Facility within
development involved the additions of molybdenum and space agencies are comprised of high capital investments
niobium to 625 to impart solid solution hardening and the such as Large Space Simulators that reproduce the vacuum,
formation of Ni3Nb, a very effective hardening precipitate. certain radiations and the cryogenic-to-elevated temperatures
This is known as the super alloy Inconel 718 and has encountered by space hardware. Mechanical and acoustic
become the most widely used high temperature nickel alloy. tests simulate the launch environment, the magnetic
characteristics of spacecraft are evaluated and all tests are and other operator handling errors, etc.). It was seen that the
performed under various classes of cleanroom conditions. reliability of electrical interfaces between equipments, and
As mentioned previously, a development plan for a new the mutual compatibility between the constituent subsys-
spacecraft design will involve a model philosophy where tems, was seriously jeopardized by fundamental oversights
models of the craft will be dynamically testedwithout (e.g. high electrical resistance between gold-plated and
testing the risk of failures is too great. In the early days it was aluminium-nished interfaces due to galvanic corrosion;
not uncommon for space authorities to build four models for migration of silver to produce short circuits; the use of
testing prior to actually building a flight spacecraft. The austenitic steels having work-hardened and therefore slightly
model philosophy will be accounted for in the next para- magnetic surfaces in locations required to be magnetically
graph, but it is emphasised that as the space industry has clean; etc.). Remedial actions were taken by suppliers and
matured, the design margins have become established (for assemblers as a result of failure review boards (FRBs).
structures and electronic systems) so that there is now more Lessons learnt documents (nowadays called internal problem
focus on analysis and less on actual testing. It is now the notication documentsIPNs) were written and circulated.
norm to build only one prototype for testingoften this Finally, a fully assembled qualication model was built and
build and test is completed only six months before work subjected to a comprehensive series of environmental
commences on manufacturing the flight spacecraft. ground tests. These usually included: sine vibration, spin,
It is interesting to remember the aims of the model acoustic noise vibration, centrifuge acceleration, and solar
philosophy for the early (70s and 80s) European simulation. Each of these major test phases was preceded by
telecommunication satellite projects. The structural model an integrated systems test in order to verify that the func-
was subjected to a programme of tests which exceeded the tional behaviour of the satellite was correct. It was not
expected launch environment conditions (each type of uncommon that the qualication model would be recognized
launch vehicle has its own characteristic levels of vibration as a flight spare in case of launcher failure.
and acoustic noise). Typical test congurations are shown in Flight model test programmes were, and continue to be,
Fig. 2.1ac. The enormous amount of energy released during more limited than those used on the qualication model
launch can be witnessed from Fig. 2.2. Weakness in designs (most customers now refer to this as the protoflight model).
may be exposed by this model, such as failures resulting It may be assumed that some subsystem parts that will
from fatigue of welds, struts, electronic box hold-down operate for relatively short periods after launch can accu-
points, and the like. The thermal model was subjected to mulate several hundred hours of test operation before the
solar simulation and thermal balance testing to conrm and actual time of launching. Materials selected for use under the
update previously determined mathematical models. During vacuum conditions of space may therefore have to operate for
these tests, decient designs may promote several material periods under normal atmospheric conditions. This may
failures related to thermal fatigue, overheating, and embrit- create special problems. One is immediately reminded that
tlement of incompatible joining techniques and metal alloys. very thin (tens of ngstroms1) lms of lead, or molybdenum
By simply modifying the paint nish of the spacecraft sur- disulphide, for the lubrication mechanisms, can rapidly oxi-
face, or by the attachment of reflective mirrors, it was found dize under terrestrial conditions and become the cause of
possible to adjust and reduce the local temperature envi- malfunction. This goes to illustrate the need to know the
ronment of each subsystem or equipment and reduce the effects that ground testing may have on delicate surfaces.
chance of thermally induced failures. Workmanship prob- A nal concern of the writer relates to the participation of
lems abounded, with non-conformances relating to open materials experts on spacecraft project review boards. It is
circuits in cable harnesses due to wires separating from paramount that an experienced materials engineer is incor-
crimp barrels and cold soldered joints on circuit boards (such porated into each of the four major reviews during the design
events became less frequent once operator and inspector and construction of individual spacecraft. Whenever ECSS
training schemes were introducedsee Sect. 6.14). The Q-ST-70 is included as a contractual document this become
engineering model ensured that integration and performance a requirementas a minimum, the materials engineer will
could be achieved. A review of the old project and labora- manage the steps taken for the project-approval of declared
tory failure investigation reports was made by the author (at lists for every flight material, mechanical part and their
the time of ling and archiving as a result of which they were related processes (i.e. DML, DMPL and DPL). Tasks should
lost forever!). This revealed that several material problems also include cleanliness and contamination control, the
only came to light during integration, particularly at the testing and validation of new materials, assistance in the
mechanical interfaces between equipments and the structure
(e.g. failure of springs and bolting devices due to incorrect
plating processes which cause delayed failure by hydrogen
embrittlement; the over-torqueing and fracture of lock-nuts 1 equals 1010 m.
1
qualication of mechanical parts and the verication of new (b) Sublimation and evaporation
or critical processes.
Spacecraft, such as CubeSats and university flight The minimum altitude for an Earth-orbiting satellite is
experiments may follow less rigorous requirements and a 200 km (125 miles), and, once this altitude has been reached,
reduced M&P programme is suggested in Appendix 8. appreciable changes can be produced in common engineer-
Reviews are usually contractual milestones and essen- ing materials, whether they be metals, plastics, or ceramics.
tially question: will the design, hardware, software, and The vacuum in space is very high, the pressure falling from
operational approach satisfy the mission objectives? The 106 mm Hg at 200 km to less than 1012 mm Hg beyond
review names and their main objectives are as follows: 6500 km. Some polymers will decompose and some metals
will tend to sublimate under vacuum. The rate at which the
PDR (preliminary design review): after evaluation of thermal molecules or atoms leave a surface in vacuum will rise
and/or engineering models, to approve and release the rapidly with an increase in temperature according to the
preliminary design, including materials and processes. equation:
CDR (critical design review): this establishes the nal design
and agrees that flight hardware manufacturing can com- G 5:04 103 PM=T 1=2
mence (all declared materials being approved and pro-
where
duction process, when required, are veried as being
suitable).
G grams of material evaporated or sublimated per square
QR (qualication review): assess that all qualication
centimetre per day
activities on subsystems are completefor certain projects
P Vapour pressure of the evaporating species in torr2
a qualication model is built.
M Molecular weight of the material
LRR (launch and operations readiness review): this checks
T Absolute temperature, K
that all lower-level acceptance reviews have been suc-
cessfully completed, the flight model spacecraft accepted, Temperature has an enormous effect on the amount of
and it is then authorized to be launched. metallic material that is sublimated. As examples, cadmium
and zinc have sublimation rates that increase by a factor of
ten for roughly every 30 C rise in temperature:
2.3 The Effect of a Space Environment Cadmium has a vapour pressure of 108 at 70 C
(approximately)
107 at 90 C
106 at 120 C
(a) General 105 at 150 C and
104 at 180 C
The purpose of this section is to provide the reader with an
overview of the salient points concerning the effect of a The relationship between the vapour pressure of a metal
space environment on spacecraft parts and materials. Far (P) and temperature (T) is given by the following equation:
greater discussion with examples will be made of these
effects throughout the remainder of this book. P P/ eE=RT
Each spacecraft material will be required to suffer no
where P = a constant (i.e. vapour pressure at T = ),
vibrational fatigue damage during the launch. In orbit, it
E = heat of evaporation (e.g. joule mole1), and R = gas
will need to survive the space environment (see
constant (8.3 J mol1 K1).
Table 2.4) and, in particular, to possess low-outgassing-
The temperatures for given metallic sublimation rates
under-vacuum properties, whether it be a lubricating
are listed in Table 2.5. The thermal environment in space is
grease or a structural plastic. Radiation and thermal
completely different from thermal conditions on Earth.
cycling must not degrade thermal-control surfaces or
Without an atmosphere, the only means of exchanging
joints in materials possessing different coefcient of
thermal energy is by thermal radiation and conduction.
expansion. The presence of atomic oxygen in low Earth
Certain parts of satellites have been calculated to follow
orbits, a relative newcomer in environmental effects, has
been seen to lead to the erosion/corrosion/oxidation of
many material surfaces, and more coatings with good 2
The term torr is generally used instead of mm Hg by international
atomic oxygen durability need to be developed. These agreement of several vacuum societies. Torr honours the name of
aspects will be detailed in Chap. 8. Torricelli, who discovered atmospheric pressure in 1643.
2.3 The Effect of a Space Environment 23
Table 2.4 Characteristics of the space environmentorder of magnitude only (Dauphin 1984)
Altitude Pressure (mm Kinetic Gaseous density Composition Ultraviolet Particle radiation
(km) Hg or torr) temperature (particle cm1) radiation (particles cm2 s1)
(K)
Sea 760 300 2.5 1019 78 % N2, Section of solar
level 21 % O2, 1 % A spectrum 0.3
30 10 4 1017 N2, O2, A Absorption zone
6
200 10 1200 1010
N2, O, O2, O +
Full solar
spectrum
800 109 1300 106 O, He, O+, H Full solar
spectrum
6500 1013 103 H+, H, He+ Full solar 104 protons 35 MeV
spectrum 104 electrons 40 keV
22,000 1013 101102 85 % H+, Full solar 108 protons 5 MeV
15 % He2+ spectrum
108 electrons 40 keV
104 electrons 1.6 MeV
thermal excursions from approximately 160 to +180 C. proong of any of the spacecrafts components. Magnesium
The actual temperature attained will differ from one space- parts could pose sublimation problems after long exposure to
craft to another, the major temperature effect arising from the vacuum at temperatures greater than 125 C, and experi-
spacecrafts spin rate. Surfaces of non-spinning satellites ments have shown (Frankel 1969) that magnesium sheets
exposed to direct solar radiation may be unable to dissipate held at 230 C and 1 107 mm Hg for only 168 h (one
thermal energy efciently, and will reach higher tempera- week) became severely pitted and dramatically decreased in
tures than spinning satellites. Temperature variations will static strength properties. Because of their relatively high
also depend upon the amount of albedo radiation and the strength-to-weight ratios, magnesium alloys are often
amount of thermal radiation to space from the spacecraft. employed as structural parts, but it is essential that these
Both active and passive thermal control systems are parts are nished with an adequate plating or chemical
employed on satellites in order to restrict the oscillating conversion coating which will prevent both the corrosion of
temperature extremes. The active systems have made use of the part before launch and the subsequent sublimation
thermostatically controlled heaters. Passive systems involve problem in orbit. Tinlead alloys, such as those employed
the surface absorptance/emittance, /, properties of material for soldering electrical components, have not been seen to
nishes. Solar reflectors have low / ratios, being generally sublimate under spacecraft environments as they are
white paints or clear anodized aluminium. Black paints and restricted for use in areas which are thermally controlled to a
inorganic black anodized aluminium wave / values of maximum of about 80 C. Solder alloys are used for joining
approximately 1. Solar absorbers have an / value greater silver-plated molybdenum interconnector strips between
than 1, and these are generally polished metals since the solar cells on the solar arrays of spinning satellites. As such
emittance values of uncoated metals are very low (<0.l). satellites rotate, the maximum temperature of the arrays does
Examples are described in Sect. 5.5. not degrade the soldered joints. The stationary communica-
The majority of metals do not sublimate at normal tion satellites will not be able to dissipate the absorbed
spacecraft temperatures. However, as can be seen in thermal radiation on the solar arrays efciently, so that
Table 2.5, cadmium and zinc must be excluded from use as welded interconnectors are necessary.
they will readily sublimate and could condense in the form The events of sublimation and evaporation cause the
of thin conductive deposits on electrical insulators, or opa- release of metal atoms which travel and are capable of
que deposits on optical components which may be situated recondensing on cooler surfaces. They are readily ionized
within the satellite or on its external surfaces. All cadmium, and may be contributors to corona and arcing phenomena.
zinc, or tin-plated surfaces, such as the protective nishes on These metallic ions may also cause the complete failure of a
equipment or components including commercial connectors, satellite mission by recondensing between slip rings, causing
must be avoided, because, as will be described in Chap. 7, electrical short circuits, or recondensing on optical surfaces
they are known to grow single-crystal whiskers exceeding causing the loss of a specic wavelength transmission. When
2 cm length in vacuum. Extreme care must be taken to such ions recondense on the spacecrafts highly reflective
ensure that these metals are not used in the corrosion thermal control surfaces the thermal balance can be so
Table 2.5 Sublimation of metals and semiconductors in high vacuum

Sublimation rate 1000 a/year 103 cm/year 101 cm/year
(0.0004 in/year) (0.04 in/year)
Temperature C C C
Cadmium 40 80 120
Selenium 50 80 120
Zinc 70 132 180
Magnesium 110 170 240
Tellurium 130 180 220
Lithium 150 210 280
Antimony 210 270 300
Bismuth 240 320 400
Lead 270 330 430
Indium 400 500 610
Manganese 450 540 650
Silver 480 590 700
Tin 550 660 800
Aluminium 550 680 810
Beryllium 620 700 840
Copper 630 760 900
Gold 660 800 950
Germanium 660 800 950
Chromium 750 870 1000
Iron 770 900 1050
Silicon 790 920 1080
Nickel 800 940 1090
Palladium 810 940 1100
Cobalt 820 960 1100
Titanium 920 1070 1250
Vanadium 1020 1180 1350
Rhodium 1140 1330 1540
Platinum 1160 1340 1560
Boron 1230 1420 1640
Zirconium 1280 1500 1740
Iridium 1300 1500 1740
Molybdenum 1380 1630 1900
Carbon 1530 1680 1880
Tantalum 1780 2050 2300
Rhenium 1820 2050 2300
Tungsten 1880 2150 2500
l = 1010 m
a
Based on data by Jaffe and Rittenhouse, California Institute of Technology
degraded that severe overheating will promote malfunctions. been developed using this metal, but CNES evaluations have
Cesium is an uncommon metal with a melting point of 28 C determined that cesium can easily contaminate spacecraft
and a boiling point of 671 C but it has been proposed as a surfaces due to its low vapor pressure and re-evaporate from
propellant for eld effect electronic propulsion (FEEP) when surfaces warmer than 30 C to cause further contamination
very low thrust applications are required. Thrusters have and react chemically with polymers or some oxides to
change their optical properties (Tondu 2011). The impracticable to enclose such moving parts within hermet-
BepiColumbo mission dedicated to the study of Mercury is a ically sealed containers, so special lubricants must be found
challenging ESA project where temperatures may reach which do not decompose or sublimate under vacuum. Films
300 C at all external surfaces and metallic sublimation is of of low shear strength, such as molybdenum disulphide or
major concern (as is the outgassing of organic materials). vacuum deposited soft metals (e.g. gold, lead, or silver), are
A reference to Table 2.3 will immediately show that mate- most efcient, particularly when designed to be situated
rials containing zinc, cadmium (always prohibited in space between hard substrates which will support the load and
applications) and lead are unsuitable candidates. Sublimation keep the contact area small.
and cold welding of solar array drive mechanisms will The possibility of contacting metallic surfaces becoming
require strict controls for the bearings, slip-rings and cables cold welded to each other during, for instance, the operation
(Fink et al. 2009a, b). of spacecraft mechanisms or loading of threaded fasteners
For additional examples of the effect of sublimation on under vacuum conditions depends on a number of factors;
spacecraft hardware, the reader may refer to Sect. 5.6. there will be a greater chance of cold welding if
(c) Radiation and particle damage (a) the relative phase diagram indicates that the contacting
metals or alloys form a solid solution with each other,
Organic materials, such as those used for electrical insula- (b) the metals are soft and have the same crystal structure,
tion, may be damaged by ionization due to protons and (c) contact surfaces are clean, or possess easily
electrons from radiation belts, solar emissions, and cosmic damaged/removable oxide lms. Surface oxides are
rays. The Van Allen radiation belt is especially damaging to normally more brittle than metals and are therefore
organic materials and even inorganic materials which make more likely to crack and expose underlying metal if it is
up optical lenses, ceramic insulators, and sensitive electronic too soft to provide a rm support under load, and
components. The metallic materials of most Earth-orbiting (d) contact pressures are higher. The rst step in order to
spacecraft, as well as deep-space probes, are unaffected by minimize the possibility of cold welding is to select
small particle radiations, and are only slightly degraded by those metal combinations known to resist adhesive
erosion from a cloud of meteoric dust which surrounds the wear, as for instance those shown in Fig. 2.4a. The next
Earth and other planets. Larger particle damage was, how- step is to consider the surface nish.
ever, a major problem for the Halleys Comet yby mission
called Giottowhich encountered that comet in 1986. Clean metallic surfaces react with the surrounding
Special armour plating was developed to surround that atmosphere to form oxides, nitrides, or other compounds that
spacecraft, which was impacted by rock debris travelling at are held together by either strong chemical bonds, or weak
hypervelocities of 1070 km/s. These aspects are reviewed van der Waals forces. These surface lms reduce the pos-
in Chap. 8. sibility of metalmetal adhesion that would otherwise occur
on intimate contact; they can be considered as naturally
(d) Friction and wear formed lubricating lms. Under the space environment such
lms are unlikely to be self-healing if they become dis-
One of the major material problem areas for advanced placed. For this reason protective lms of PTFE (Teflon),
spacecraft is that of friction and wear of surfaces which must graphite, and molybdenum disulphide are frequently selec-
rub or slide over each other under conditions of temperature ted to prevent wear and cold-welding.
cycling and high vacuum. This may be encountered in the Suitable non-lubricated pairs of engineering alloys for
operation of hinges, gears, bearings, and electrical contacts sliding wear situations can be selected from engineering
used in a vast number of spacecraft mechanisms. During alloys having very different hardnessestraditional refer-
sliding under normal terrestrial conditions most contacting ence books may be consulted (Brandes 1983; Lansdown and
metallic surfaces are protected by a surface lm of oxide, Price 1986), or for very precise data, the recent work of
oil, grease, or other contaminant which will act as a shear Merstallinger et al. (2009) can be checked for evidence of
layer and prevent binding. Under vacuum conditions such fretting wear and cold welding (it is intended that this ref-
contaminants outgas, and oxides, once disrupted or erence work is maintained on the internet and updated as
removed, are unable to reform. Also, the minute junction new pairs of engineering material pairs become tested).
spots which carry the full load between contacting metallic In general, steels can be coupled with either copper alloys
surfaces will usually have vastly increased friction coef- or steels of a different alloy type and hardness. Copper alloys
cients, and probably high rates of wear, so that many can be coupled with chromium plating, high-chrome steels,
metallic couples will tend to cold-weld. It is usually and tungsten steels. Austenitic stainless steels have a
Fig. 2.4 a Depicts the theoretical possibility of clean metal surface lubricants) such sticking will be avoided. The very thin oxide lm on
pairs becoming cold-welded upon contact. Choice of a metal to resist austenitic stainless steel is easily ruptured under the sliding conditions
adhesive wear with another specied metal. The blacker the circle, of torquing-up nuts and bolts. High vacuum operation has contributed
the better will be resistance to adhesive wear and cold welding under to the complete seizure by cold-welding of this 316 alloy vacuum
vacuum (Lansdown and Price 1986). Same-to-same metal contacts will chamber support xture. The 45 mm diameter bolt was initially cut to
result in solid solution, sticking and cold welding. b Demonstration of a release the threaded portion which was later cross-sectioned. The
case where same metal contacts have become cold welded (a form of pointer shows the main region of cold-welded asperities
solid state diffusion). By applying lead or silver coatings (e.g. as solid
great tendency to cold-weld to each other (see Fig. 2.4) as standard (Labruyre and Urmston 1995; Doyle and Hubbard
they are both soft and unable to form thick protective 2010; ECSS-E-ST-32-08 2013).
chromium oxides. Alternatively, with very hard substrates It should be noted that all dry lubricants wear, and will
such as chromium plating, surface deformation is so small possess a nite life. However, improved wear characteristics
that the surface chromium oxide lm is never disrupted (see can be achieved by carefully selecting the process of applying
Fig. 2.5). Materials suitable for spacecraft bearing applica- the dry lubricant. Ion-plated lead and sputtered molybdenum
tions are titanium-carbide coated balls located in raceways disulphide are now well proven, having low coefcients of
fabricated from 440C or SAE 52100. A particularly good friction and a long life. Burnished or spray-bonded molyb-
anti-wear surface, as for instance in gears, bushes, and piv- denum disulphide has inferior friction properties. It is
ots, is plasma-nitrided steel (Rowntree and Todd 1988). important to store the dry lubricated spacecraft mechanisms
Thermal spraying is also a novel process for the coating of in a dry inert gas in order to prevent moisture pick-up, and as
spacecraft subsystems enhancing wear resistance and as a neither lead nor molybdenum disulphide perform well in air
thermal barrierhere thermal spraying can deposit both low the number of operations in normal atmosphere should be
and high melting point materials such as polymers and restricted (Rowntree and Todd 1988).
ceramics and metallic layers such as aluminium onto CFRP
substrates such as antennae face-skins (Sturgeon and Dunn (e) Cryogenic temperatures
2006; Saber-Samandari and Berndt 2010). Case histories
related to wear are detailed in Sects. 5.2.7, 5.11, and 5.12. All spacecraft structural metals will undergo changes in
A large number of rules and design recommendations for the properties when cooled from normal ambient temperatures
avoidance of wear and cold welding (for instance at mech- to temperatures in the subzero range encountered during
anism end stops, hold-down and release springs, sliding solar eclipse periods or when voyaging on deep-space mis-
contacts, and ball bearings) have been listed in the form of a sions. This will be an important factor when liquid helium
With the exception of pressure vessels, plumbing lines, liquid

fuel cells, and galvanic battery cells, these problems of cor-
rosion are not evidenced in the vacuum environment of space.
(g) Material fatigue
The low and high cycle fatigue lives of parts fabricated from
most steels, aluminium and titanium alloys are impressively
extended under vacuum conditionsthis is particularly
welcome as many spacecraft parts will be subjected to
extensive mechanical and thermal fatigue during their
operational lives. An analysis of the results from extensive
test programmes (Grinberg 1982) strongly indicates that the
vacuum environment produces a change in the plastic strain
intensity in the near-fatigue crack region of all alloys, and an
increase in the plastic zone depth of ductile materials. This
results in a decrease in crack propagation rate, due in part to
the absence or a considerably reduced effectiveness of oxide
or chemisorbed lms on fresh crack surfaces.
(h) Spacecraft charging
In orbit or in deep space, spacecraft and space vehicles can

develop an electric potential up to tens of thousands of volts
relative to the ambient extraterrestrial plasma (the solar
Fig. 2.5 Example of 300 mm long Spacelab pallet trunnion wind). These large potential differences (called differential
machined from Inconel 718 and hard chromium plated. The insert charging) can also occur on the external surface of a launch
shows plating to be 10 m thick and well bonded to the etched substrate
vehicle. The main consequences of spacecraft differential
charging are the phenomena of electrical discharge (coro-
cryostats form a major part of a payload, as for instance has nawhich produces a damaging glow around conducting
been designed for the Infrared Space Observatory, where materials at high potential) and arcing (a luminous bridge
sophisticated instruments are located in a 60 cm telescope formed by discharge between spacecraft electrical conduc-
cooled to 2 K. The greater changes involve the embrittle- tors). Similar discharges may also be observed when
ment of metal alloys, particularly carbon steels. Space high-voltage equipment, such as travelling wave tubes and
vehicles must be fabricated from materials with high electronic power supplies, operates on board for the trans-
strength-to-weight ratios. They must also be required to mission of signals from the spacecraft back to Earth. Many
retain high levels of fracture toughness at all service tem- factors contribute to spacecraft charging, including the
peratures to ensure fail safe lifetimes. In general, yield spacecraft conguration, its structural and surface materials,
strengths, Youngs modulus, and tensile strengths increase how correctly these materials are grounded, whether the craft
as the exposed temperature is decreased. The effect of is operating in sunlight or shadow, its altitude above Earth,
low-temperature exposure on ductility and toughness is, and the flux density of high-energy solar particles or level of
however, dependent on alloy composition, and for specic magnetic storm activity. Many possibilities exist to neu-
alloy data special handbooks should be consulted (Campbell tralize the spacecraft potential: where possible all intercon-
1980; Reed and Clark 1983). necting parts, particularly at the surface, should be
electrically grounded to ensure sufcient electrical conduc-
(f) Corrosion tivity between interfaces. This will include solar call cover
glasses and optical solar reflectors (see Sect. 5.5.4). Alter-
It should be emphasized that several effects of the space native, new methods that reduce surface potentials (partic-
environments are benecial to metallic materials. Before ularly for scientic spacecraft designed to measure plasma
launch many criteria have to be set forth for the selection of and electric elds in the space environment) are active sys-
spacecraft materials, so that failure resulting from corrosion tems that release a sufcient amount of charged particles
and particularly stress-corrosion cracking will be prevented. across the external surfaces. These particles are ions, emitted
by eld emission from a liquid metal source that can be the most outer bodies known to orbit the Sun, the RGA
indium. Ion release is usually for a short time, until the power system will be turned on and seven science instru-
spacecraft potential is reduced, or reaches zero. ments activated.
(i) Spacecraft in hibernation

2.4 Materials for Space Launch Vehicles
The Rosetta spacecraft was manufactured by a European
consortium during the 19982003 time period. It was laun- At present the only way that satellites, people, and cargo can
ched in March 2004 with the objective of making a ren- be carried off from the Earth into the environment of space is
dezvous with the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, by the use of rocket-propelled vehicles. Expendable launch
otherwise known as 67P. This craft achieved a new rst in vehicles (ELVs) are used only once. Many nations are
human history, by reaching its destination in August 2014 involved with the construction and launch of ELVs. The
and began orbiting 100 km above the surface of the icy most well known of the several hundred launch vehicles to
comet, taking images and then descending to a height of have boosted spacecraft from Earth are listed in Table 2.6.
30 km before detaching its lander, named Philae. Much of The rst European telecommunications satellite
Rosettas 10 year journey was in hibernation mode. The (OTS) was lost when its ELV exploded during launch,
journey covered 6.4 bn km through the Solar System (three probably due to a defective solid rocket motor case. The
times around the Earth, once around Mars, once close to failure review established that the steel case material had
Jupiter and ve times around the Sun). Consequently this been incorrectly heat-treated. Parts of the exploded case
spacecrafts hardware was subjected to most of the space were retrieved from the Atlantic Ocean by submarine.
environments compiled into (b) to (h) above. Close to the Metallographic evidence determined that the large cylindri-
Sun the problem of overheating was solved by using radi- cal piece-parts had received an austenitizing time or tem-
ators to dissipate heat into Space. Conversely, close to perature which was insufcient to solution treat the AISI
Jupiter, the hardware and experiments (20 in all) were kept 4130 (0.3C, 0.95Cr, 0.2Mo rem. Fe) steel. This was apparent
warm by multi-layer insulation blankets and heaters located from the presence of large-sized spherical carbides in the
at strategic points such as fuel tanks, pipework and thrusters. microstructure of the solid rocket motor case. The flight
The Philae lander was separated from Rosetta by means of a hardware case had not achieved peak hardness during sub-
small pyro (explosive) cable cutter which activated the sequent quenching and normalizing. Incidentally, the in-line
release of a large compressed spring. Much metallurgical process control sample that had accompanied the flight case
work was conducted prior to launch to ensure that the Car- did have adequate mechanical and microstructural properties
penter spring steel would not become embrittled at the very this was because of the small mass of the test piece which
low (160 C) outer Solar System temperatures, or become responded well to the time-temperature prole. A replace-
cold welded to its mated structural surfaces, during its pas- ment spacecraft, OTS 2, was launched successfully 8 months
sage close to the Sun. Philaes landing gear was also mate- later in 1978 on Thor Delta number 141this event can be
rially demanding due to the low temperatures encountered seen in Fig. 2.2. The Delta ELV continues to be one of the
and low power budget (Thiel et al. 2003). The main com- most successful US launchers.
ponents being harpoons to anchor to the comets surface: a A schematic diagram of the main features of a typical
copper beryllium projectile, pyrotechnic expansion system, ELV is shown in Fig. 2.6. This shows the Titan rocket which
cable magazine and a rewind system (AA 7075-T7351) was initially developed in the USA during the 1950s and
driven by a brushless motor having plain bearings machined continues to be launched today as a stretched version (Titan
from MoS2-lled polyimide (Vespel SP3). in and IV). This ELV, together with the Delta rocket, was
Rosetta is supplied by power from two 14-m-long solar complementary to the Space Shuttle fleet, particularly for the
arrays having a total area of 64 m2. The Si solar cells used launch of heavy payloads. The fleet of Space Shuttles were
are 200 m thick, of low intensity, low temperature type, retired in 2011 and NASA has selected two spacecraft to
approximately 38 62 mm size. The cover glasses are potentially replace the shuttles. It is intended that the US will
100 m thick ceria doped micro-sheets. Four 10 Ah NiCd take astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in
batteries store the power to supply the 28 V bus lines. 2017 by means of reusable capsules, the SpaceX Dragon and
Many other scientic spacecraft covering great distances Boeings CST-100. Each capsule can be placed on
use power from radioisotope thermoelectric generators single-use rockets, such as the Falcon 9 Heavy or Atlas 5
(RTG). For instance, the New Horizons spacecraft, launched series, and they have been designed to carry up to seven
in January 2006 has been in hibernation for two thirds of its astronauts at once. At the time of writing, only Russia is able
flight time, and will reach Pluto in mid-2015. On reaching to transport astronauts to and from the ISS by means of its
2.4 Materials for Space Launch Vehicles 29
Table 2.6 Selected launch vehicles

Country of origin Launch vehicle (latest known version) Typea Payload into GTOb (kg)
China Long March 3 (1992) ELV 2500
Long March 3B (2007) ELV 11,500 (LEO)
5500
European Space Agency Ariane 4 (1990) ELV 2600
Ariane 5 (1996) ELV 6800
Ariane 5 (2014) ELV 10,500
VegaItaly (2014) ELV 1500 (LEO)
India Vehicle 3 (1979) ELV 40 (LEO)
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (2014) ELV 3250 (LEO)
Israel Shavit (1988) ELV 160 (LEO)
Japan H-1 (1986) ELV 1100
H-IIB (2009) ELV 16,500 (LEO)
8000
USA Scout (1979) ELV 5400
Atlas 2 (1991) ELV 2700
Atlas 531 (2014) ELV 17,000 (LEO)
Thor Delta (1992) ELV 2000
Delta 2 (2012) ELV 2500
Saturn V ELV 10,000
Titan III and IV (1989) ELV 5000
Falcon 9 (2014) ELV 13,150 (LEO)
Space Shuttle (1990, retired 2011) AV 25,000 (LEO)
Former USSR Vostok (1960) ELV 5000 (LEO)
Proton (1968) Russia ELV 5500
Soyuz-2.1b (2014) Russia ELV 3000
Soyuz-2.1b (2014) Russia ELV 8500 (LEO)
Soyuz-2.1v (2013) Russia ELV 2800
Zenit 3SL (2002) Ukraine ELV 6000
Buran Retired AV 30,000 (LEO)
Key
a
ELV expendable launch vehicle; AV aerospace vehicle
b
Geosynchronous transfer orbit [flight performance to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is usually more than twice this payload weight]
Soyuz rocket. Supplies of equipment and food are trans- utilizing only the liquid or solid materials on-board; at pre-
ported to the ISS using either the Russian Progress space- sent, there is no possibility of using atmospheric oxygen.
craft of the European Automatic Transfer Vehicle. Since its The term propellant is used to denote the two chemical
rst flight in 2008, the ATV has played a vital role in ISS products, the oxidizer and the fuel, contained inside
logistics serving as a cargo carrier, space tug and storage conventional rockets. The fuel is burnt with the oxidizer in
facility. ATV will evolve into the European Service Module order to achieve the enormous amounts of energy needed for
(ESV) designed to support the NASA Orion spacecraft. The liftoff. The propellants can be in either liquid or solid state.
deep-space missions envisaged by NASA will rely on the Modern rockets are powered by cryogenic propellants:
Orion spacecraftit has been flown on a successful test liquids which at atmospheric pressure have boiling points
flight aboard a Delta 4 Heavy booster launched from the below 0 C. Examples are liquid oxygen (183 C) and
Kennedy Space Centre at the end of 2014. liquid hydrogen (253 C).
Propellants for launch vehicles are regarded as materials. The most simple solid propellant is prepared from a
All rockets are propelled into the vacuum of space by mixture of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerinethis is the fuel.
Comparative tests were made between this new propellant

and the best-performing HTPB-containing propellant. The
ndings included an increase in characteristic velocity of
about 8 % and, importantly, an ecologically benign exhaust,
free of chlorine, where the combustion products are nitrogen,
water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and aluminium oxide.
Liquid propellant motors are usually fed from two tanks,
one containing the liquid fuel (such as kerosene, liquid
hydrogen, or hydrazine (N2H4)), the other containing the
oxidizer (usually liquid oxygen or nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4)).
Infrequently, fuming red nitric acid or nitrogen peroxide is
used. The propellants are injected into the rocket motors
combustion chamber, where ignition and combustion occur
with a great release of thermal energy. The combustion gases
are then forced through the exit nozzle of the motor. Here, the
kinetic energy is absorbed by the nozzle as the gas velocity
increases and then decreases through the throat of the
nozzle. A drawing of the Ariane IV launcher vehicle parts is
shown in Fig. 2.7. The rst two stages of this ELV use
hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. The third stage is propelled
by a cryogenic engine fed by liquid hydrogen and liquid
oxygen. As illustrated in the gure, Ariane IV has the pos-
sibility to incorporate either liquid or solid propellant booster
motors to assist in the rst stage liftoff.
In contrast to Ariane, the Space Shuttle was, as its name
implied, reusable and of extreme importance for its role in
manned, near-Earth activities. The Shuttles primary
propulsion consisted of a large external tank (47 m in length
and 8.7 m in diameter) which contained compartments for the
liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen propellantsthese were fed
Fig. 2.6 View of the main structural parts of an ELV (based on a
Titan III design) to the three main engines, and two strap-on booster motors
which contained a solid composite propellant (polybutadiene,
acrylic binder, and ammonium perchlorate oxidizer).
The oxidizer is prepared separately from either ammonium Rocket structural materials are usually based on the
nitrate, ammonium perchlorate, or potassium perchlorate. Duralumin series of aluminium alloys (4 %Cu, 2 %Mn, rem.
The fuel and oxidizer are made into powder form and then Al). These alloys have high strength-to-weight ratios and are
mixed with binder such as polyvinyl chloride or a poly- detailed in further sections of this book. Concerning Ari-
urethane. The resulting substance is poured into the solid ane IV, much use has been made of the aluminium alloys
rocket motor casing, where it sets hard. The case is usually AU4GN (AA2024), AZ5GU (AA7075), and AZ5G
made of steel, as discussed previously for the Thor Delta (AA7020). These are the French alloy designations with the
solid rocket motor, but composite materials based on gra- US Aluminium Association designation in parentheses.
phite bres are also used. More complex solid propellant Further cross-references to national alloy specications are
chemistry is based on polybutaidene acrylonitrile (PBAN) given in Appendix 6. Some locations for these alloys are
and hydroxytelechelique polybutadiene (HTPB) propellant. indicated on Fig. 2.7. Unfortunately, several of their
The HTPB propellant for Ariane V solid boosters is, typi- heat-treatment conditions are susceptible to stress corrosion
cally, 68 % ammonium perchlorate, 14 % polybutadiene, cracking (SCC). A particular problem resulting from SCC is
and 18 % aluminium powder. Much progress has been made discussed in Sect. 4.5. All the major structural materials used
during the last decade in the development of improved solid for the construction of Ariane and its motors are identied in
propellants. One propellant is identied as GAP/Al/HNF Fig. 2.7. The more modern rocket motor and booster bodies
[glycidyl azide polymer being the binder, aluminium powder containing solid propellants are machined and welded from
and a new form of powerful oxidizer with the chemical maraging steels, which are based on iron with large
composition of hydrazinium nitroformate (Schoyer 1996)]. amounts of nickel, cobalt, and molybdenum. These steels
Fig. 2.7 Launch vehicle inboard

prole with main structural
materials indicated (Ariane IV, 42
LP)
can be easily rolled and formed into complicated shapes, oxygen. Similarly, any pressure vessel liner materials based
then weldedafter this a suitable heat treatment is made on organic materials need to be compatibility testedthis is
which produces very hard and tough material properties. more difcult, only one resin system, Torlon Al-10, being
Liquid fuels and oxidizers are usually stored in pressure found to be compatible with liquid oxygen (Healy et al.
tanks which may be made of titanium or aluminium alloys, 1995).
as shown in Fig. 2.8. These inner surfaces which make The Zenit ELV of the former Soviet space agency was
contact with the liquid fuels must be tested and found formally announced in 1989. The vehicle is a two-stage
compatible and non-igniting with the liquid. For instance, liquid oxygen and kerosene rocket which, like all CIS
the titanium alloy Ti6A14V is known to be compatible with launchers, is assembled horizontally. Its launcher assembly,
hydrazine, and aluminium alloys compatible with liquid payload integration, and launch preparation phases have
Fig. 2.9 General view of the Zenit assembly hall
Fig. 2.8 A liquid propellant rocket engine
been described as highly automated (Isakowitz 1995).

General views of the Zenit assembly hall and its kerosene
LOX engine are seen in Figs. 2.9 and 2.10 respectively.
This ELV has recently been proposed for launching satellites
from the sea. The novel idea is to utilize a covered
semi-submersible oil rig as the ring platform. This would
be anchored in the Pacic, at the Equator, so making full Fig. 2.10 Installation of Zenit rst stage keroseneLO2 engine
advantage of the Earths maximum rotational velocity (about
1600 kph). The Zenit rocket, standing 62 m tall, would face Vulcain engine powers the Ariane V main cryogenic stage.
eastward in a direction avoiding any inhabitable landfall. All This engine consists of a gas generator cycle, in which tur-
other major world space launch sites are rather far north bopumps driven by a gas generator fed by propellants tapped
from the Equator with the exception of ESAs facility at from the main supply system feed fuel and oxidizer to the
Kourou, French Guiana, which is less than 500 km north of combustion chamber. Liquid oxygen (oxidizer) and liquid
the Equator. The uniquely flexible Sea Launch site will hydrogen (fuel) are sprayed into the combustion chamber.
undoubtedly require the implementation of a comprehensive Because of the extremely high combustion temperature,
corrosion protection scheme for all the associated spacecraft reaching 3600 C and with about 1600 C at the internal wall
materials. of the chamber, it is necessary to cool the chamber. This is
The Ariane V development was initiated by the European done by machining channels into the chamber wallthere
Space Agency in 1985. It is designed for commercial mis- are 360and passing liquid hydrogen through them as the
sions to launch satellites and cargo for the future space engine is red. The chamber is fabricated from a wrought
stations. The proposal for launch of the European Hermes as high-strength copper alloy (Narloy-Z) with an outer band of
a reusable winged manned space vehicle atop the Ariane V nickel. The combustion chambers of the Space Shuttle main
was cancelled in the mid 90s. However, it has flown several engines were also made from Narloy-Z (Cu, 3Ag, 0.5Zr wt%
cargo vehicle [Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV)] and is with O2 of approximately 50 ppm) and, when correctly heat
designed for a Crew Transfer Vehicle (CTV). An illustration treated, this alloy was ideal for combustion chambers oper-
of the Ariane V in a dual launch conguration is shown in ating from 252 to 540 C but above this temperature the
Fig. 2.11. Ariane V has a length of 54 m, a gross mass of hot wall mechanical properties were degraded because of
710,000 kg, and a designed thrust at liftoff of 15.9 MN. The grain growth, grain boundary sliding and bulging that
Fig. 2.12 Cross-sectional view of combustion chamber wall showing

the rectangular coolant channels machined into the chamber lining
(Narloy-Z, a copper-silver-zirconium alloy with signicantly greater
strength than pure copper but with only slightly lower thermal
conductivity). The close-out band is made of thin electroplated copper
followed by electroplated nickel. This design is incorporated in the
Space Shuttle main engine and the Ariane HM60 and Vulcain engines
forms part of the quality assessments and assists in the

generation of reliability ratings.
An interesting new development is the 3D printing of a
full size combustion chamber by engineers at NASA-MSFC.
The cooling channels, similar to those seen in Fig. 2.12,
consist of 200 intricate conduits with complex internal
geometries. They are located between the inner and outer
liner walls and although difcult to accommodate, were
successfully built in by additive manufacturing. The copper
alloy powder used for the 3D printing is GRCo-84, a
Fig. 2.11 The main system of Ariane 5. Note For Ariane 5, all the material developed by NASA Glen Research Centre. It has
welded aluminium AZ5G (AA 7020) alloy previously selected for the
been stated (Hipolite 2015) that the selective laser melting
structure of Ariane 4, has been replaced with AA2219 owing to this
alloys improved resistance to stress corrosion cracking. The painted machine at MSFC fused 8255 layers of the alloy powder to
surfaces of Ariane 5 can be seen in Fig. 4.113 make the chamber in under 11 days.
Whereas the main structural alloy for the Ariane IV
resulted in cracking (Singh 2005). The liquid hydrogen launcher was aluminium alloy AZ5G (AA7020), a major
passing through the coolant passages at 252 C not only decision was made during the design stage of Ariane V to
cools the chamber and prevents the Narloy Z from melting, change to the alloy AU6MT (AA2219) as shown in
but it is itself heated, and in turn injected into the combustion Fig. 2.11. The liquid oxygen (LOX) tank of the main
chamber. A cross-sectional view of the chamber wall is cryogenic stage is made from two hemispherical sub-
shown in Fig. 2.12 and is described in its caption. The assemblies machined from AA2219 dye forging. An equa-
Vulcain engine develops 1.12 MN of thrust by ejecting some torial weld unites these parts. During the ground-hold period
250 kg s1 of gases at very high speed. These gases just prior to launch of Ariane V the LOX tank is pressurized
harmless to the environment as they are basically water with helium, initially loaded into the tank as liquid helium.
vapourare accelerated by the nozzle to a supersonic speed. An internal pressure of 2123 bar is maintained during the
Like the combustion chamber, the bell-shaped nozzle is also flight of Ariane V. This high pressure and the operation of
cooled by a flow of hydrogen. Hundreds of test rings have the LOX tank at cryogenic temperatures under the enormous
been made with many Vulcain engines in order to demon- vibrational and flight loads, requires that the AA2219
strate that the engine meets its performance specications. material and its weldments are extremely well controlled by
Some rings (see Fig. 2.13) have exceeded 18,000 s of metallurgical techniques.
operation so that engine material and equipment limits As a further example, the Ariane V upper stage, storable
(endurance, failure modes, etc.) can be determined. It is here propellant system (EPS), consists of 4 EPS tanks for the
that work involving metallurgical inspections and detailed storage of N2O4 and monomethyl hydrazine. These tanks are
failure evaluations is importantthe reporting of these tasks also constructed from AA2219 material by direct current,
have had toe optimized in order to achieve the tanks

required margin of safety.
The large-diameter Ariane V solid propellant booster
motor cases (EAP) are seen in Fig. 2.11. These are
thin-walled tubes formed by the novel process of
counter-roller flow forming. The material is the steel
48CDNV4 (American D6AC), for which a large amount of
thermomechanical processing and property data are avail-
able. Conventional tube spinning is to place a cylindrical
tube blank on a solid cylinder mandrel and roll the outer
surface of the tube so that it becomes thinner and longer. The
special flow-forming process applied by the German MAN
company is to place a cylindrical blank tube of D6AC
between four roller-pairs. The roller-pairs are separated by a
xed distance that will be the nal tube diameter. The tube is
initially attached to a face plate, which can rotate. The tube
wall thickness is forced into each roller-pair. As the tube is
rotated, the roller-pairs are fed down the length of the tube,
causing it to elongate and become thinner. Metallurgical
assessments making use of mechanical testing and metal-
lography were used during this process development in order
to optimize the flow compression stresses in the deformation
zone and understand their effects on the steels
micro-structure. The motor thrust frame on the main stage of
Ariane 5 is essentially an unpressurised conical structure
consisting of many integrally machined parts made from AA
7075. These are mainly interlocked by manually installed
Hi-lokTM fasteners, but these lap-joined parts have also been
Fig. 2.13 Test ring of the Vulcain-2 engine (courtesy of SNECMA,
proven to be reliable when joined by friction stir welding
France). The nozzle exit diameter is 2.5 m. Liquid hydrogen fuel is (FSW) methods (Brooker 2001).
used to cool the engine, flowing through a jacket surrounding the thrust Several companies are considering designs and the use of
chamber. The heat absorbed this way is necessary in prolonged rings new materials for future reusable launch vehicles. Single
and enhances the initial energy content of the LOX and LH2
propellants prior to injection into the combustion chamber where the
stage to orbit (SSTO) launch systems will use advanced
highly exothermic reaction produces steam (2H2 + O2 2H2O) and metallics and advanced composite materials, and it is the
more than 1000 kN of thrust. The nozzle supports rectangular tubes re-entry phase for such craft which will generate the highest
made from Inconel and welded together to form a helical structure aerodynamic heating rates. In the early 1970s many data had
through which the hydrogen coolant flows (Suslov et al. 2010)
been established for a wide range of quality refractor metals
based on molybdenum and molybdenumrhenium alloys
variable-pulse TIG welding. They have a volume of 2335 1 that were covered with protective coatings. These heavy
each, made up from two spin-formed hemispheres and an alloys were abandoned in the mid-1970s once NASA had
equatorial ring. The initial 2219 is procured as sheet in decided to select a ceramic reusable material for the thermal
temper 0 A blank is precontoured on a lathe and this is protection of the Space Shuttle.
convex spin-formed in 21 steps at a temperature of 200 C. There are several kinds of heat shield. The system
The alloy is then solution heat-treated and quenched (535 C designed for the Shuttle is the most advanced to have flow to
for 50 min, then water-quenched within 10 s). The parts are date. On the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules, the
then stretched by 13 %, which results in the temper T-31. shield consisted of an epoxy-resin compound that removed
The parts are welded and subsequently warm-aged at 177 C heat by flaking off as it passed through the atmosphere. This
for 18 h in order to achieve high strength properties. kind of ablative shield can be used only once. The newer
Metallurgical assessments are made throughout these pro- thermal protection material was developed by NASAs Ames
cess steps in order to control against grain coarsening of the Research Laboratory and the Lockheed Missiles and Space
2219. Heating temperatures for spin-forming must not be so Company. It is very lightweight, relatively easy to manu-
high as to induce grain growth. Also, strain-hardening steps facture into small square tiles, and impervious to heat (one
Fig. 2.14 a Night launch of Space Shuttle. b Illustration of the thermal photographed at the KSC Visitors Centre after retirement; showing
protection systems (TPS) for the Space Shuttle fleet. Key: RCC the triple paned, optical quality windows, the LRSI ceramic tiles and
reinforced carbon/carbon; HRSI and LRSI high- and low-temperature beryllium is associated with the window frames. d Scanning electron
ceramic tiles; FRSI felt reusable surface insulation. c Atlantis image of Shuttle tile (silica bers in unglazed condition) 1000
can hold a six-inch square tile at its edges and not feel any seen to vary in diameter from 1 to 10 m. This material has a
heat when the centre of the tile is glowing red-hot). There are density of 136 kg m3, but more rugged varieties are denser
about 31,000 tiles on each Shuttle, each moulded and cut to and some contain boron, which causes the bres to weld
t the orbitors contours. The basic material for the Shuttle together. The thermal protection surfaces developed from
insulation is a very ne glassy bre of pure silica (SiO2). Shuttle experience are now very robust. The
Figure 2.14a shows the approximate layout of the various alumina-enhanced thermal barrier tiles overcoated with
Shuttle thermal protection systems (TPSs). The reinforced reacting cured glass have been produced that can withstand
carbon-carbon (RCC) regions can reach temperatures of up the impact of 800 kph raindrops (Healy et al. 1995). The tiles
to 1500 C during descent through the atmosphere. The are bonded onto the aluminium skin of the Shuttle with a
reusable felt surface insulation may reach 500 C during silicone adhesive known as RTV 560, which is a somewhat
ascent. The HRSI and LRSI ceramic tiles differ only in their soft material that avoids cracking of the rigid tiles as the
surface coatings (Vaughn 1985). The high-temperature aluminium airframe deflects in flight. Thermal protection is
(HRSI) tiles are coated with a high-emissivity black reac- not needed for lower surface temperatures; for instance,
tion cured borosilicate glass (to re-radiate the heat efciently Inco-617 could be selected for temperatures under 980 C
during re-entry). The low-temperature material is coated and Ti-1100 for temperatures below 700 C (Baumgartner
with a white silica/alumina coating designed to reflect the and Elvin 1995).
suns radiation as the craft is in orbit. Figure 2.14b shows the The retirement of the Shuttle fleet in 2011 has meant that
microstructure of a ceramic tiles interior. Here, the bres are crew members from the ISS can only return to Earth by
for rendezvous with ISS. Falcon 9 has nine rst-stage engines

and a single second stage engine, this conguration is con-
sidered to reduce the number of possible separation events.
Falcon 9s faring is manufactures in two halves from sheet
carbon bre bonded to an aluminium honeycomb core. The
rst stage tank is manufactured from aluminium-lithium alloy
by means of friction stir welding and it contains two alu-
minium tanks that are capped by aluminium half-domes for the
liquid oxygen and RP-1 propellant respectively. The second
stage is manufactured similarly to the rst stage from AlLi
and the interstage utilizes a composite structure made from
carbon-bre lay-uped onto an aluminium core. Unusually, a
pneumatic separation is employed for the faring and for both
interstage separations, in order to reduce the shock forces that
Fig. 2.15 Engineers completing the installation of the heat shield on
NASAs Orion spacecraft. The Avcoat ablative material is covered with accompany the ring of pyrotechnic devices. The follow-on
a silver reflective tape that protects it from the extreme cold Falcon Heavy, presently in design phases, is expected to be the
temperatures of space. The heat shield has been shown able to protect most powerful rocket flyingonly the Saturn V moon rocket
the Orion crew from temperatures in the order of 2800 C during last flown in 1973 could deliver more payload into space.
re-entry and ocean splashdown (courtesy NASA)
A recent addition to the European family of launchers is
Vega (see Fig. 2.16) developed initially by the Italian Space
means of the Russian Soyuz Descent Module. This vehicle Agency (ASI) and Italian industry (see Table 2.6). Vega
can hold up to three astronauts/cosmonauts and takes about became ofcially an ESA programme in 1989 and the rst
3.5 h to return and land on the flat grassy plains of Kaza- Vega lifted off from the Guiana spaceport in 2012 on a flawless
khstan in central Asia. Four parachutes dramatically reduce qualication flight. The three subsequent launches were fully
the speed of descent 15 min before landing, followed by the successful and nine further launches are planned post-2015.
nal main parachute which reduces the speed of the craft to A breakdown of the advanced materials used to construct
24 feet per second and at this speed, one second before Vega (2006, VEGA) can be listed in a similar way to those
touchdown, the vehicle is slowed down to make a soft selected for Ariane and illustrated in Fig. 2.7.
landing by the ring of two small engines located at the Payload Fairing:
bottom of the vehicle. Structure comprises of two halves of sandwich panel
NASAs Orion crew module (Fig. 2.15) is designed to CFRP sheets and Al honeycomb core that has been already
accomplish manned missions to the Moon, an asteroid and used on Ariane 4.
even Mars. On its return to Earth this spacecraft will descend AVUM liquid rocket (UDMH and nitrogen tetroxide)
through our atmosphere much like the Apollo capsules. The Upper Stage:
rst Orion was launched in December 2014 atop a Delta 4 Carbon-epoxy cylindrical case with propellant stored in
Heavy rocket in a test flight to check many of the systems two identical titanium tanks as seen in Fig. 2.17.
critical to safety. It has shown that advances in heat-shield First Stage (with solid rocket motor SRM P80FW), Sec-
design and materials technology can tolerate temperatures in ond Stage (with SRM ZEFIRO 23) and Third Stage (with
the order of 2800 C during decent phases of such missions. SRM ZEFIRO 9):
The Orion heat shield consists of a titanium skeleton covered Structures are graphite-epoxy lament wound monolithic
with a carbon-bre skin. This skin is later covered with a motor case protected by low-density thermal insulation
honeycomb layer composed of ber-glass and phenolic packed with microspheres (EPDM). The interstages are
resin. The honeycomb cells are then lled using a hand-held forged rings of either 7075 or 7175Al alloy in the T7351
dispensing gun with a material called Avcoat, a mid-density heat treatment condition (for each of the 1/2, 2/3 and the
ablator that is similar to the ablative material used on the 3/Avum interstages) and these are chromic acid anodized for
Apollo command module (Reuther 2010). Avcoat is an corrosion protection. Some separation springs are made from
epoxy novalic resin, designated by NASA as 5026-39-HC/G 17-7PH steel. The solid propellant for the solid rocket
(with a revised composition that contains less carcogenic motors is monolithic Finoxil grain shaped with a star shape
compounds than the Apollo shield chemistry). on the nozzle side and EG1LDB3 low-density EPDM based
The Falcon 9 rocket is an evolved expendable two-stage rubber insulant. The motor nozzles are made from: 3-D
launch vehicle manufactured in the US by the SpaceX com- carbon/carbon throat and carbon phenolic exhaust cones.
pany. It made history in 2012 by launching the Dragon In 2015 the Vega rocket successfully launched a 5 m-long
spacecraft (somewhat similar to Orion) into the correct orbit wingless reusable spacecraft, weighing 2 t, into a suborbital
b Fig. 2.16 a Evening view of a mock-up Vega launch vehicle within

the mobile gantry in Kourou. Vega benets from the location of the
European Spaceport, GSC, at Kourou in French Guiana as it lies close
to the Equator. The vehicle will take small payloads into a variety of
orbits including Low Earth, Sun Synchronous and Polar. Note the four
tall lightning rod towers stretching far above the mobile gantry and the
housed launch vehicle. Lightning is very common at both KSC and
GSC sites so it is important that launch vehicles are protected against
the ionized plasma that constitute the branches of lightening discharges.
The tops of four towers are interconnected by stainless steel catenary
cables which form effective Faraday shielding. b Kennedy Space
Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Space shuttle Endeavour sits on
Launch Pad 39A as a storm passed prior to the rollback of the Rotating
Service Structure on 28th April 2011. The xed service structure
(FSS) seen here, is 106 m high to the top of its lightning mast. The
following day Endeavour launched the STS-134 mission to deliver a
high pressure gas tank, spectrometers, spare parts and antennae to the
ISS. 39A has been used for the manned Apollo-Saturn V launches.
SpaceX, the new commercial space company now launches its Falcon 9
and Falcon Heavy from this same pad
be the effect of the flight prole on IMVs structural mate-

rials and the hypersonic aerothermodynamics phenomena
whereby air (O2 and N2) molecules are dissociated at high
velocities and temperatures. A wide variety of materials are
being tested during the IMV test flights into low Earth orbit.
These include different types of ceramic matrix composites
used on the nose, hinges and flaps and ablative thermal
protection materials such as Portuguese cork and
silicon-based materials to withstand the severe re-entry
environment up to 1700 C.
Silicon carbide bre reinforced metal matrix composites
are of increasing interest for aerospace and space applica-
tions. The surge in interest in the late 1980s was driven by
interest in the USA and Europe in hypersonic vehicles
requiring high specic strength and stiffness materials with
elevated temperature capability. Further aerospace work has
focused on actuators and landing gear where the very high
compressive strength (2.54 GPa) coupled with low mass
and corrosion resistance make them ideally suited to replace
steel and other metallic parts with 3040 % weight reduc-
tions typical (Fig. 2.18a). The increased aerospace devel-
opment has re-established interest from the space sector with
the low mass high compression strength and potential for
welded joints being of particular interest for space craft
structures and robotic systems.
The Reaction Engines Skylon spaceplane has identied
titanium MMCs as a suitable material for the fuselage truss
path. The craft, named Immediate Experimental Vehicle structure and other static components (Fig. 2.18b, c). This
(IMV), separated from Vega at a height of 450 km and truss structure needs good tension and compression proper-
reached a speed of 7.5 km/s, later demonstrating maneu- ties and potential for elevated and cryogenic temperature
verability using thrusters and aerodynamic flaps to reduce operation. The truss structure also needs a low mass and
speed from hypersonic to supersonic. It then glided through easily assembled jointing for the MMC tubes which can be
the atmosphere before deploying a parachute and landing in welded and inspected with upwards of 60,000 tubes over the
the seathe craft was then picked up by a recovery vessel 80 m fuselage. Other materials incorporated into this
and shipped to ESA-Estec for analysis. Of key concern will spaceplane are seen in Fig. 2.18d.
and composite materials for an equally exhaustive list of

applications.
Nonmetals are often dened as not containing metals
and that they are able to combine with hydrogen, carbon and
oxygen to form stable compounds. This is a very loose term
as most non-metallic materials do contain metallic elements.
Polymers and elastomers are formed when monomers and
other mers are combined together and this is often referred
to as polymerization. These reactions are often not completed
and some material remains as an unreacted fragment. Simi-
larly, the reaction may be complete but there remains a
byproduct that may be unstable, particular under vacuum.
Other polymers or organic materials will often contain
deliberate additions of chemicals and metals which impart
special properties such as flame retardation, anti-oxidation,
colouration, and electrical or magnetic properties.
Sublimation, or the transition of solid metals directly to a
gaseous phase (without passing through an intermediate
liquid phase) has been discussed in Sect. 2.3b. Certain
metals and alloys are specically forbidden from space use
as they can sublimate from one surface on the spacecraft and
later condense on another, not necessarily cooler, surface to
cause problems such as optical degradation of mirrors and
electronic short circuits. The behavior of organic materials
under vacuum is more complex than that of sublimation.
Organic materials are said to outgas under vacuum. Here
there can be an immediate loss of species such as H2O, CO2
and N2 from a surface, followed by constituents having a
Fig. 2.17 Installation of the nal stage of the second Vega (VV02)
launch vehicle inside the mobile gantry at GSC. This upper stage is
low molecular weight, a process akin to distillation. Raising
called the AVUM (Attitude Vernier Upper Module) contains the the temperature causes more molecules to outgas and there
Propulsion Module that burns pressure-fed UDMH and nitrogen may be some breakdown of chemical bonds resulting in
tetroxide as propellants (built by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau) and further outgassing and reduction in weight of the organic
the Attitude Control System (courtesy ESA)
material. With time, there can be solid or gaseous diffusion
from the materials interior to the surface and this can cause
the material to further degrade in properties or lose weight in
2.5 Non-metallic Materials a vacuum or space environment.
Outgassing is one of the most problematic behavior of
2.5.1 General spacecraft materials as the outgassed species can recondense
on thermal control surfaces, optical surfaces, electrical
Non-metallic materials appear throughout the chapters of contacts (rendering them open-circuits) and cause corona
this book as they are selected during the design and manu- effects. Each of these problems are described as case studies
facturing stages of every spacecraft subsystem. Once, only or failure modes within this book and can be located via the
metallic materials, specically alloys, were used for indi- Index.
vidual structures, housings and tanks. Nowadays, as the Most of the Space Agencies have performed tests on
physical and mechanical properties of organic and composite organic materials during the screening of potential spacecraft
materials have been developed for terrestrial use and rened materials and their processes. The main test procedures are
for the space environment, spacecraft are often constructed those dened by the American Society for Testing of
from more (both volume and weight) non-metallics than Materials (ASTM 2007) and ECSS (ECSS-Q-ST-70-02),
metallic materials. these are considered important reading for those involved
Spacecraft utilize plastics for components, elastomers for with material selection. Basically, the test is performed on
propellant diaphragms, lubricants for bearings, polymers for very accurately pre-weighed samples (between 100 and
circuit boards and paints, textiles for astronauts spacesuits, 300 mg) positioned in a specially designed holder. Each
adhesives for structural bonding, ceramics for optical mirrors sample is conditioned (24 h at 22 C at 55 % RH). The
2.5 Non-metallic Materials 39
Fig. 2.18 a Illustration of a

landing gear side stay made from
silicon carbide bre reinforced
titanium alloy matrix highlighting
its light-weight property. This is
30 % lighter than the forged
aluminium baseline. Courtesy of
TISICS Ltd., Farnborough. b The
Skylon spaceplane is unpiloted,
reusable and intended to transport
up to 15 t of cargo into space. It
will use the SABRE engine that
combines air-breathing and rocket
cycles so that take-off is possible
from a runway, flight is direct into
Earth orbit and return is, like an
aircraft, back to a runway.
c These Skylon truss struts have
been tested in compression up to
50 kN exceeding the 30 kN
design load. Actually a couple of
struts did fail around 50 kN. In
tension they fail close to 30 kN
indicating that there is room for
further improvement in the cuff
region. d The materials proposed
for construction of Skylon are
titanium for fuselage and wing
spars, aluminium alloy for the
propellant tank, the external
aeroshell is made from bre
reinforced ceramic, and the
landing gear will possibly use
titanium matrix composite.
Courtesy of Reaction Engines
Limited
holder is transported into a vacuum chamber having speci- permissible temperature for a few days in order to
ed dimensions. Testing is made under vacuum at 1 Pa, at a remove residual contaminants, process contaminants and
temperature of 120 C, for 24 h. A collector plate is main- handling contaminants.
tained at 25 C and situated at 10 mm above the sample
during the test period. Figure 2.19 illustrates the basic con- Several compilation tables of outgassing data of materials
cept of the outgassing test method. After the samples intended for spacecraft use have existed since the 1960s. Of
temperature/vacuum/time exposure, the sample is again course, much of that data is now obsolete as material man-
weighed. It is then re-conditioned at 55 %RH (in order to ufacturers and suppliers update their products and withdraw
re-absorb any water) and re-weighed. The mass of con- some from the market. Importantly, some manufacturers
densed material on the collector plate is also measured by may have retained their products Trade Name, but changed
accurate weighing. the procedure by which it is made. This makes it important
The following terms should be understood: to check outgassing data on every batch of production
unless safeguards are made to ensure that products conform
collected volatile condensable material (CVCM)quantity to certicates of compliance, or that process identication
of outgassed matter from a test specimen that condenses on a documents (PIDs) are established and audited by the
collector maintained at a specic temperature for a specic procuring agent.
time Websites can be visited to acquire some preliminary data,
NOTE CVCM is expressed as a percentage of the initial unfortunately they are often not kept up-to-date, and include:
specimen mass and is calculated from the condensate
mass determined from the difference in mass of the col- http://outgassing.nasa.gov/
lector plate before and after the test. http://TEERM.nasa.gov/links/html
recovered mass loss (RML)total mass loss of the specimen http://esmat.esa.int/Services/outgassing_data/outgassing_
itself without the absorbed water data.html
NOTE 1 The following equation holds: RML = TML
WVR. Testing for outgassing may be made at centres such as:
NOTE 2 The RML is introduced because water is not Integrity Testing Laboratory, Markham, Ontario,
always seen as a critical contaminant in spacecraft Canada; AAC, Wiener Neustadt, Austria; ESA-Estec,
materials. Noordwijk, the Netherlands; INTA, Spain; TS-Space Sys-
The WVR is the water vapour regained by the sample after tems, UK, and the Goddard Space Flight Centre, Greenbelt,
reconditioning. MA, USA.
total mass loss (TML)total mass loss of material outgassed Outgassing is distinctly different from the offgassing of a
from a specimen that is maintained at a specic constant material. Outgassing, as previously discussed, occurs under
temperature and operating pressure for a specied time a reduced pressure or vacuum. When materials emit volatile
NOTE TML is calculated from the mass of the specimen compounds in an ambient atmosphere this is termed off-
as measured before and after the test and is expressed as a gassing. It can be likened to the smells that are emitted from
percentage of the initial specimen mass. the interior of a new car. In the 1970s the offgassing of art
objects in a museum were investigated and found to be
The following Accept Criteria are generally contractual related to the degradation of both antiquities and their
requirements set by the customers procuring space hardware, packaging materialsa standard Oddy test method was
but it is accepted that many spacecraft units can be baked in devised using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
order to satisfy these materials requirements: (GCMS) analysis. Many offgassed species were found to
As a minimum, the outgassing screening parameters for a degrade stored antiques, they were based on alcohols, acids,
material selection shall be as follows: amines and siloxanes (Tsukada 2012). In one specic case,
amines were found to volatilise from polyester polyurethane
1. RML < 1.0 %;
foams that were used to cushion and padding within storage
2. CVCM < 0.10 %.
cases. The amines released by these foams had severely
NOTE 1 For materials used in the fabrication of optical damaged Ming Chinese jars by causing thick white
devices, or in their vicinity, the acceptance limits can be efflorescent deposits to form on these ancient pieces. Very
more stringent than those stated below. similar contamination from offgassed foams has resulted in
NOTE 2 It is nowadays becoming standard practice to the corrosion of stored spacecraft electronic components:
bake critical hardware (such as structural parts, harness, leads nished with silver, nickel and also tin-lead have
electronic boxes and thermal blankets) to the highest become tarnished and sometimes so oxidised that they are
Fig. 2.19 a Photograph of a Micro-VCM test equipment for the determination of outgassing properties. b Schematic drawing to show the heater
bar and location of the plate onto which collected volatile condensable materials (CVCM) will deposit ESA
rendered non-solderable, even with activated solder flux. It is radiation induced damage to these bresbut this will
strongly recommended to avoid the following packaging depend on the orbital altitude and proximity to the Van Allen
foams and sheets: polyvinyl chloride, Styrofoam, rubber, belt. The Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEFsee
paper, wool, silk, nylon and some untested polyurethanes. Fig. 8.12) demonstrated that after 69 months in LEO no
Better long-term storage media, some of which provide for damage ensued except for one cable hit by a micrometeorite.
anti-static discharge, would be glass, stainless steel, poly- Adhesives, coatings and ATOX-resistant paints:
ethylene, Dow Ethafoam 220 or similar, and Azote poly- Araldite AV 138 with hardener epoxy from Huntsman;
olen foams and Zotek polymer foams from Zotefoams. DC93-500 space grade encapsulant from Dow Corn-
Offgassing is associated with the safety of human life and ing; RTV 566 silicone from Momentive Performance
is addressed during the assessment of materials and specic Materials; MAPSIL 213 silicone potting and MAP ATOX
equipment that will be used in a manned environment such 41-8 varnish for atomic oxidation protection, also electri-
as the International Space Station. European standards for cally conductive brown adhesive QS 0225 EA83, thermally
offgassing and toxicity were developed in the 80s during the conductive white adhesive QS 1123 TA66 and black general
construction of the ESA Spacelab in order to avoid causing adhesive QS 1123 CEIT, all from MAP Technology.
harm to both astronauts and to the hardware in these manned Adhesive tapes (for flight or temporary use): Scotchtape
compartments. In fact for such projects, as well as the var- No. 5 from 3 M Company; Eccoshield PST CA from
ious equipment and experiments that are supplied to the ISS, Emerson and Cummings.
it is mandatory that all organic materials are tested for off- Paints (can be epoxy-, silicone- and polyurethane-based,
gassing, toxicity, bacterial and fungal growth as well as with or without pigments such as zinc oxide and titanium
flammability. The relevant standards include ECSS-Q-ST- oxide (white) or carbon black (black)): MAP SG121FD
70-21 and -70-29 and NASA-STD-6001. white non-conductive flexible; New paints compliant with
REACH, being water-based, and having no ITA restrictions
are: AQPU1 a non-conductive paint, and AQPUK a con-
2.5.2 Classes of Non-metallic Materials ductive paint; all from MAP Technology; Aeroglaze Z306
black polyurethane with high thermal absorptivity from
The space community has adopted several classes of LORD Corporation.
non-metallic materials. As a brief summary some of the vast Lubricants: Dry MoS2 (alone or within a Teflon or
number of suitable materials are listed hereunder. However, polyimide binder), Fomblin Z25 silicone oil from Solvay
it must be recognized that every material will require to be Plastics; see also organic lubricants listed in Table 5.2.
tested to ensure it is suitable for a given project application. Potting compounds, sealants and foams. It should be
Some of the products listed are contained in the datasheets noted that there is a great variation in the effectiveness of
annexed to ECSS-Q-ST-70-71. sealantsthat is, the time for moisture to permeate various
Optical materials such as organic glasses, oxide ceramics sealant materials. Generally silicones are poor sealants for
and amorphous inorganic glasses (need to consider radiation moisture, epoxies are better followed by fluoro-carbons, but
environment to avoid damage and yellowing): Makrolon for truly hermetic seals only glasses or metals can be con-
(polycarbonate) from Bayer; and Spectrosil fused silica from sidered: Solithane 113300 two part urethane from EV
Optik Heraeus. Zerodur is selected by many companies for Roberts; Stycast 2651-40 dielectric epoxy, and other low
the manufacture of space and ground-based telescopes, it is a outgassing products from Henkel or Emerson and Cuming.
lithium aluminium silicon oxide glass ceramic characterized Reinforced plastic composites (usually carbon, glass,
by evenly distributed nano-crystals within a glass phase Kevlar, Zylon or boron bres, whiskers or chopped bres, in
matrix having an extremely low expansion coefcient. a polymer matrix). These are used for both structural and
Optical bres have come into a class of their own and are electronic applications: Applications for reinforced plastics
more frequently selected for box-to-box optical communi- can be found throughout this book by making an index
cations within spacecraft. Each bre, generally made of silica search. Fasteners such as bolts, screws and pins give ultimate
sometimes containing a germanium dopant, is an optical weight saving choices for applications with moderate loads,
waveguide that can transmit light along its axis. Optical bres with the weight of aluminium and 1/5th the weight of steel
are manufactured as a core inside a cladded layer and an outer they are resistant to harsh chemicals. With other com-
protective coating. They have advantages over copper elec- posite materials they have a matched CTE and superior
trical wires in that they are lighter, chemically inert, do not galvanic corrosion properties while being electrically and
corrode and can be easily joined (see also Sect. 6.14). magnetically transparent. Various fastener products from
Important for space use, they are immune to electromagnetic Click Bond, Inc.
interference, and are electrically non-conductive so avoiding Rubbers and elastomers. Used for damping systems,
short circuits and grounding problems. One drawback is the clamps, seals and bladders for fluids: Viton B-910 from
DuPont; SIFA-35 and AF-E-332 from PSI Corp. It is 2.5.3 Novel Non-metallics
essential to know the properties of these materials over a
wide range of temperatures as will be highlighted by the (a) Vespel (DuPont) has been utilized more frequently for
explosion, and loss of life, of the space shuttle Challenger spacecraft applications during recent years as inferred
(STS-51). This accident was caused by a sequence of events, by the previous paragraph. It is a polyimide-based
but the engineering cause related to the low temperature plastic and has particularly good space properties,
mechanical properties of the elastomeric O-ring seals that such as a low outgassing under vacuum, even at high
interfaced the joint between the two cylindrical lengths of temperatures. The basic material (SP-1) has a low wear
each booster. The seals were designed to be compliant rate and low coefcient of friction in vacuum and
between the two metallic joint faces in order to prevent hot moisture-free environments. The tribological properties
gas, under huge pressure, escaping during take-off. The of Vespal can be further enhanced by the additions of
STS-51 launch took place during an unusually cold period at 15 % graphite (SP-21), 10 % PTFE (SP-211) or 15 %
KSC which caused the elastomer to shrink and loose elas- molybdenum disulphide (SP-3). The low thermal
ticitythis caused the hot combustion gases to escape, burn expansion of all Vespel variants are between 35
the seal and release enough gaseous fuel to cause melting of (SP-21) and 55 (SP-211) ppm/C, relatively low for
the case and the catastrophic explosion. polymers (when compared to values listed in Appen-
Thermoplastics. Often used for multi-layer insulation dices 1C and 1E). Vespel has been used in a spacecrafts
(MLI), second surface mirrors, electronic wire insulation and liquid helium cryostat, as a valve seat, selected for its
sleeving: a multitude of products such as Kapton H, FEP, stability at cryogenic temperatures (see Fig. 5.71). As an
PTFE are produced by companies such as BASF, ICI and example of its versatile temperature use, Vespel has also
Aventis. been demonstrated as a successful non-metallic inter-
Thermosetting plastics. Usually thermosetting polymers face material against aluminium in the design of the
consisting of base, hardener and catalyst which when mixed electric propulsion pointing hold down and release
have a determined shelf life: products include Araldite mechanism of Bepi, qualied from 40 to +150 C
CT205 as used for printed circuit board lamination; and, under contact loads of between 15 and 60 MPa (Janu
Epikote-828. et al. 2009).
Obsolescence can be a problem with inorganic materials. (b) Graphine. This is the thinnest compound known to
Production lines may have ceased due a materials lack of man and comprises of a thin layer of pure carbon. The
demand. The space market is very small compared to other carbon atoms are bonded together in the form of a
industries and some costly production processes may cause hexagonal, honeycomb lattice. It is a two-dimensional
the manufacture of space-approved products to be unprof- carbon monolayer and being only one atom in thick-
itable. For instance, RT/Duroid 5813 was extensively use in ness, it is the lightest material known to man (1 m2
the space industry for ball bearing cage applications, but weighs about 0.77 mg). Graphine is also the most
manufacture of this precision bearing material stopped in the electrically conductive material available and although
mid-90s. Stocks were exhausted just before a replacement it has the potential to be used for spacecraft commu-
material was foundidentied as PGM-HT (a composite of nication equipment, with vast weight savings, it can
PTFE, glass bre and MoS2). Although thought to be a only be produced in very small sizes and quantities.
direct replacement for Duroid, the PGM-HT was found to Applications include durable display screens, electrical
shrink on returning to room temperature after heating under circuits and solar cells. Graphine is produced by
vacuum. After much more searching and testing at the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and this process
European Space Tribology Laboratory (Buttery 2011) deposits carbon in the form of multi-crystals having a
another material was found: Sintimid 15M/Tecasint 1391 single-layer sheet of carbon atoms. It is these grain
which is currently considered to be a viable alternative to the boundaries that are thought to affect the larger-scale
recent, US-sourced, Vespel SP-3. Incidentally, the properties of the sheet, such as thermal and electrical
RT/Duroid laminates produced by Rogers Corporation for conductivity. The grain orientations and surface
space electronic printed circuit boards (high-power and topology of graphine has been observed by
microwave) continue to be produced, they consist of PTFE atomic-resolution transmission microscopy (Chuvilin
lled with random glass or ceramic micro-bres. et al. 2014). Possibly graphine could also be used to
build a large solar sail; it would have the smallest mass

per unit area and, if the material could be manufactured
into large sheets, it could sail using solar radiation
(photons) from the Sun. By adjustment of the sails
angle relative to the Sun, the sail could be steered so as
to tack towards or away from the Sun and could pro-
gress to the edge of the Solar System. To date, only
beryllium sails have been considered possible as they
can be produced to a thinness of about 40 nm. Plastic
thin lms are likely to vaporize once they are unfurled
and exposed to ultraviolet radiation. Similarly, the
high-energy, ionizing solar photons may degrade and
make the properties of the graphine sail unobtainable
(Matloff 2013).
(c) Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are, like graphine, a great
challenge to engineers who are attempting to utilize
these cylindrical rolls of carbon molecules (Fig. 2.20a).
As CNTs have a density 50 % less than aluminium and a
tensile strength of 1060 GPa (an order of magnitude
greater than the strongest steel, or Kevlar) the material
could be formed into a composite for highly efcient
space structural applications. Carbon nanotube based
composites and carbon-carbon are currently under study
as structural materials for space telescopes, optical
benches and large mirrors. CNTs may have tune
able electronic properties from metalloid to
semi-conductors.
(d) Graphite bres having a thermal conductivity of over
800 W/m-K, are now being bundled with a polyester
cord to form Thermal Straps that can be used as flexible
thermal links (or heat straps). The US company,
Technology Applications Inc. is the only producer of
these fascinating straps. They are extremely light,
flexible and up to one tenth the weight of equivalent
copper straps. These Thermal Straps have been used as
heat pipes in spacecraft applications where extremely
low outgassing is required. They have a variety of end
ttings; aluminium and copper can be selected to avoid
galvanic couples or corrosion.
(e) Shape memory polymers or so-called SMPs (as
opposed to SMAs, the alloys described in Chap. 4.18)
are only recently being considered for industrial
applications; these are based on covalently cross-linked
Fig. 2.20 a Depiction of the carbon nanotube structure; properties can polymers, and their shapes can be changed by the
be used to create the strongest known bres, they can be very flexible application of heat and electric elds. Damage to
and foldable. b Illustration of an ultra-low density inorganic foil which spacecraft antennae or structures caused by space
can be made from carbon bre mesh, open-cell SMP foams and debris may be mended and accurate proles restored by
aerogels. Once unfurled, they are stable, moderately heat-resistant and
could be used for solar sailing. They could overcome current realigning those surfaces to face solar radiation from
deployment limitations by being self-deployable and very large the Sun (Athimoolam 2012). These novel, and
structures can be envisaged (Dunn 2001) gossamer-like materials may also be used as ultra-light
materials for self-deploying structures as shown in
Figs. 2.20 and 2.21.
Fig. 2.22 Example of an early hollow bre repair sample seen by

electron microscopy. The release of the repair agents from within these
storage reservoirs mimics the bleeding mechanism in living creatures.
Here, alternate hollow bres contained a resin and a hardener. Work by
Dry, C. reproduced for the STFC Workshop (Semprimoschnig and
Eesbeek 2007)
Fig. 2.21 Illustration of the InflateSail 3U CubeSat with 1 m long

inflatable boom and 10 m2 deorbiting sail proposed by Surrey Space inability to make effective repairs in space will spur on
Centre at the University of Surrey. The primary goal of this concept further developments in this discipline of materials
project is to attach such a sail to a low Earth orbiting satellite at the end science.
of its life and use the sail to remove it from orbit (image credit SSC) More often scientists and materials engineers are
looking to nature for ideas as how to make structures
stronger to improve their performance or lighter so that
Many other new materials are under investigation for they use less materialthese aims have been
space use. ArallR is a bre-metal laminate having ara- expounded by Professor Barbers team at the Univer-
mid bre-prepreg sandwiched between sheets of alu- sity of Portsmouth in their study of limpet teeth (Barber
minium alloy. GlareR consists of aluminium alloy et al. 2015). These small teeth were found to be com-
sheets bonded by glass bre prepreg. Metal matrix posed of a composite structure containing goethite
composites and ceramic matrix composites will be nanobers, -FeO(OH), distributed within a softer
referred to in subsequent chapters. matrix of a protein phase. The tensile strength of
(f) So-called self-healing materials have been considered miniature dog-bone samples, removed from the limpet
for the repair of military vehicles and battle jackets, teeth by cutting with a focused ion beam in vacuum,
ships and airplanes during the past twenty years. They was found to range from 3.0 to 6.5 GPa. Each sample
have also been studied for spacecraft applications was milled using a focused ion beam attachment to a
(Semprimoschnig 2007). Probably the most promising scanning electron microscope and the results can be
system is based on fragile microcapsules. These can be seen in Fig. 2.23. The strain behavior at fracture being
incorporated into an organic coating and, for instance, between 4 and 8 %. These values are equivalent to the
when the coating is damaged due to impact or fatigue strongest man-made bres such as Toray T1000G
cracking, the microcapsules in the proximity of the carbon bres with a tensile strength of 6.5 GPa.
defect will break and release a mix of polymerizing (g) Another interesting development is the in-laboratory
liquids that then cure and heal the damaged area. manufacture of Gecko biomimetic adhesive tape for
A similar concept, but based on hollow bres (see space applications such as holding down Multi-Layer
Fig. 2.22), has been developed by the University of Insulations (MLI) and other reflective or protective lms.
Bristol where healing occurs when an epoxy Microscopy has determined that a geckos foot has about
resin-solvent is released from the bres and flows onto ve hundred thousand keratinous hairs, each up to
a complex catalyst contained within the matrix and is 130 m in length and having a diameter of one-tenth
exposed at a crack front (Coope et al. 2014). Clearly, that of a human hair. The rst direct measurements of a
self-healing materials are of great interest for space single hairs adhesion property was made using a
missions where there are threats from impacts by two-dimensional micro-electro-mechanical systems
micro-meteoroids and space debris; remoteness and the force sensor (Autumn et al. 2000). The adhesive forces of
the hairs were thought to be governed by the that are either exothermic (at the lower temperatures) or
ultra-efcient application of van der Waals forces. The endothermic (as the material sublimates). The charred
mimicking of gecko hair properties has been attempted in layer is a good insulator, it has a good emissivity and, as
a large Italian study (Gregoratti et al. 2013). Vertically its surface is eroded in the flow of passing air, further heat
aligned multiwall carbon nanotubes (VA-CNTs) were is dissipated away from the structure. Extensive studies
grown on both rigid and flexible metal substrates using into chemical reaction, ablation mechanism and mor-
lithographic techniques: some gecko adhesive properties phology of the resultant black charred layer include those
were achieved but it seems more questions than answers of Asma et al. (2010). A recent EU-funded project called
are recorded at this early stage in the study (Gregoratti Aerofast has provided promising results for two new
et al. 2013): How the do the gecko properties respond to families of TPS materials fabricated from cork supplied
changes in temperature and humidity? What is their by Norcoat-Liege and Amorium Cork Composite
long-term reliability in specic environments? Can such (ACC). The work (Pinaud et al. 2014) also validated a 3D
a material surface be made robust and reliable? And, charring ablation model taking into account the decom-
most importantly, can they ever be fabricated position of the TPS at various temperatures, its decrease
cost-effectively over large areas? in thickness and required dimensions for various aero
(h) Although not entirely a new material to the space dynamical shapes.
materials engineer, cork is nding more interesting and The protective cover attached to US spacecraft bound
novel applications. Owing to the chemical and physical for Mars is called an Aeroshell. The Aeroshell is
structure of corkthe natural bark growing on the trunks constructed from an aluminium honeycomb, covered
of cork oak trees (quercus suber)this materials has with graphite-epoxy face-skins that are in turn covered
found important uses as ablative material on re-entry with a phenolic honeycomb containing ablative mate-
vehicles. As listed in Table 2.7, cork has a low density rial. The ablator is a unique mixture of specially graded
and low thermal conductivity. Corkcalled natures cork granules, binder and silica glass microspheres. The
foam by NASAis 90 % gas and is essentially a struc- chemical formulation of this mix is designed so that as
ture made up of dead cells, each having a polyhedron of the probe or landing craft enters the Martian atmo-
only 3040 m in diameter (Coelho 2009). Ablative sphere, friction causes the ablator to undergo chemical
materials protect space vehicles from the severe aero- reactions and char. This has the effect of dissipating heat
dynamic heating during launch and during re-entry into which is taken away by the hot wake of gas behind the
the atmosphere at velocities greater than 7 km/s. vehicle. Thermal protection system must be able to
The ablative materials used on the re-entry capsules of resist temperatures which could reach 1600 C during
rst US manned missions, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, entry into the Martian atmosphere, and yet maintain a
were based on cork. It was used on the solid rocket temperature of less than 125 C inside the probe. The
boosters of the Shuttle and applied to the booster tiles can be formed and individually machined on all six
nose-cone and frustum of Delta launch vehicles. In faces, then bonded to the probes surfaces with silicone
Europe, cork-based ablative materials were applied to blue, ESP 495.
the front and back covers of Beagle-2, are used on (i) A material nding many new applications is expanded
Ariane-5, the Atmospheric re-entry demonstrator and polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE). The microstructure
Mars Express (Bouilly et al. 2006, 2013). Illustrations of mimics some cell structures found in nature, as seen in
cork being applied to space hardware are shown in Fig. 2.26. The main usage of ePTFE in space applica-
Figs. 2.24 and 2.25. tions is as a low dielectric constant (1.3) insulation
Cork is re resistant and chars rather than burns. As a material for high-speed digital coax cables. Here,
thermal protection system (TPS) it undergoes several ePTFE provides high signal quality and optimum per-
physiochemical changes each of which are formance in miniaturized systems where conductor
heat-absorbing. Initially it heats up, then the front sizes as small as AWG 42 can be manufactured. As this
exposed surface is thermally degraded (charred), gasses material is inherently inert, thermally resistant and
released during pyrolysis pass though the charred layer hydrophobic, it can also be processed into
which becomes thicker. Gas reaction with the carbona- high-flowrate microporous membranes. Applications
ceous layer creates channels through which gas and will be as lters within manned spacecraft modules for
reaction products are released as ablation vapours. This air and potable water purication systems. ePTFE l-
releases thermal energy into the air flowing past the aments have recently been incorporated into a
structure. The cork composite is formulated so that as it bre-reinforced matrix (such as PEEK) as a reservoir
chars, the interface between the advancing char and the for solid lubricants. The porosity of ePTFE, as seen in
underlying (virgin) material causes chemical reactions Fig. 2.26, can be processed to vary from 5 to 90 %.
Fig. 2.23 Scanning electron

micrographs showing (a) the
limpet tooth prior to FIB milling,
and (b) milling to thin the sample
towards a dog bone tensile
sample geometry (c) shows plots
of stress-strain for individual
limpet samples with a variety of
lengths that were tested to failure
using an atomic force microscope
(Barber 2015)
Table 2.7 Three varieties of thermal protection systemstheir sizes and properties (by permission of Amorim Cork Composites ACC, Mozelos
VfR, Portugal)
P45 P50 P60
Cork particle size (mm) 12 0.51 0.51
Sheet dimension (mm) 1270 710 1270 710 1000 500
Sheet dimension (in) 50 28 50 28 40 20
Density @ 20 Ca 0.32 0.48 0.45
b
Tensile strength (psi) 110 250 160
Tensile strength (MPa)b 0.76 1.50 1.10
b
Elongation (%) 30 13 7
Thermal conductivity (Btu in)/(h ftb F)c 0.45 0.50 0.55
Thermal conductivity (W)/(mK)c 0.06 0.07 0.08
Specic heat (Btu/lb F) 0.6 0.5 0.4
d
Specic heat (KJ/Kg/K) 2.5 2.1 1.9
Substrates to bond Metals and composites
a
ASTM F1315
b
ASTM F152, method B
c
ASTM C177
d
ASTM C351
Work by the University of Florida (Vail et al. 2011) is pores of the included ePTFE laments onto the con-
on-going: to regulate wear in tribological applications tacting surfaces of mechanisms. As all materials under
by the secretion of very thin lubricant lms from the evaluation appear to be stable in a vacuum/space
Fig. 2.24 The Beagle 2 Mars entry probe tted with cork TPS tiles.
a Front-shield and back cover inspection in assembly work-
shop. b Front-shield tile being bondedprior to packing in bio bags
and sterilization treatment
environment, such novel lubrication methods might

eventually be applied to spacecraft mechanisms.
(j) Liquid crystal polymers (LCPs) have been evaluated
by NASA Glen and are said to out-perform conven-
tional polymeric materials for application as flexible
printed circuit substrates and large flex-antenna arrays
that can be rolled into cylindrical shape and launched
into space (Kingsley 2008). These LCPs are heat
resistant, strong and light-weightideal properties for
space applications. LCPs have been commercially
available for two decades, but modern process have
enhanced their strength and ability to be formed into
Fig. 2.25 ac Cork is applied as a TPS onto fairings and nose cones of
exceedingly thin sheet and ne wires. The wires have
modern launch vehicles such as Ariane 5, Vega and the SpaceX Falcon.
been compared to spiders silk, being of exceptional Its long heritage includes successful use on Atlas V, the former Space
strength, and comparable to steel-wire. LCP sheet can Shuttles and Apollo missions
be made to melt at 290 C or 315 C, at the lower
temperature it is called bondply and at the higher tem- components. The material can be made with a thickness
perature, the core. So, by utilizing bondply between two of 25 m, it has a low water absorption of up to 0.04 %
cores, and applying heat to slightly above 290 C, an (but is permeable to water) and resists degradation due
inseparable bond is achieved. Multiple stacking can be to radiation in space. The Japan Aerospace Exploration
made, rather like a flexible multilayer board, with metal Agency (JAXA) has used very thin LCP sheet material
vias, printed interlays of metal, and even embedded for solar sail applications, several have been successful.
Fig. 2.27 Braided sleeves, each 11 mm wide, for coaxial cables (a) is
standard nickel-plated copper braid, (b) is a novel braided sleeve
utilizing Liberator nickel-clad conductive LCP bres. These novel
bres are 15 times stronger than copper and 86 % lighter; for a RG142
coax cable the overall cable is 40 % lighter than a standard shielded
cable
Fig. 2.26 Electron microscope image of expanded PTFE membrane.
This is seen as a brillated form of PTFE; with a porous network of
brils connected to dense nodes of PTFE. Magnication of 40,000 times
discussed, in future missions assembly may occur on the
surface of our Moon and possibly other planets). So far, little
One named Ikaros recently passed Venus and JAXA work has been specically dedicated to intra-vehicular and
are now considering future sail missions, powered only extravehicular activity (IVA and EVA) joining and cutting
by the Suns light particles, to Jupiter and the asteroid issues in space. This section will revisit some of the ndings
belt. of Dunkerton et al. (2001) and include more recent welding
developments having relevance to space applications. By far
Returning to LCP wire, Vectran is said to be the only the largest contributions made to date, on the development of
commercially available melt-spun LCP bre in the world; welding and brazing technologies for use in space (Dzha-
weight-for-weight this bre is ve times stronger than steel, nibekov et al. 1991; Paton 2003), have been made by Russia:
has a high abrasion resistance, cut resistance and has good
mechanical property stability over a wide range of temper- 1969Vulkan, for electron beam (EB), low-pressure plasma
atures. These bres can be coated with copper, nickel or and consumable electrode welding
silver and is available (Liberator Conductive Fiber) in 1979Isparitel, the depositing of thin coatings by conden-
bundles comprising of 20, 40 and 80 individual laments. sation and evaporation
This is a new product and has been used as a woven braid 1983Isparitel M, deposition of braze metals
material for cables. The new braid material will be of interest 1984development of a versatile hand-held tool for cutting,
to spacecraft harness fabricators due to its substantial weight brazing, welding, heating and coating
savings over copper braid as illustrated in Fig. 2.27. 1988YantarEB coating and welding
1990Universal Hand-held 3 kW manual EB gun used on
Mir Space Station. (Figs. 2.28 and 8.33)
2.6 The Potential for Welding
and Joining in a Space Reference to the numerous metallurgical experiments
Environment performed in the space environment by astronauts and cos-
monauts, for instance on Skylab, Soyuz, Mir and the Salyut
2.6.1 Background Considerations spacecraft, have been compiled by Flom (2005) and by
Paton in his reference book (2003). The majority concerned
Large dimensions and mass mean that structures such as the the melting and joining of metals in space. Flom (2005,
International Space Station (ISS) cannot be transported as 2006) noted that the vacuum of space is higher than a typical
one complete structure into low Earth orbit. They must be Earth-situated vacuum chamber can provide so that electron
launched in sections and assembled in space (and as already beam welding would require very little power and cathode
certain antithesis between coating of the structure to ensure

its stability and resistance to degradation, whilst still
ensuring that the joining/cutting process is viable.
If one considers using welding or other processes for
repairing manned habitats it is essential that the Whittle
shields (to protect habitats from micrometeorites and
man-made debris as described in Sect. 8.4.4) are removed in
order to access the modules wall. Shields and thermal
blankets if not detachable, can form a physical barrier to
EVA joining/cutting activities in terms of accessibility
and/or temperature constraints.
If joining techniques are to be applied for construction
activities in space it will be important to consider the fol-
lowing list of critical factors:
Range of material compositions, their coatings and form,

including thickness
Portability/ease of use/stability of the tool under vacuum
(e.g. lubrication)
Health and safety
Fig. 2.28 ESA astronaut Claude Nicollier at work in December 1999 Energy requirements
making repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope with a mechanical Surface preparation/t-up/jigging
fastener tool during the refurbishment mission (courtesy NASA) Metallurgical implications and joint performance
Processing debris must be avoided
life would be enhanced; he further describes the Intra or extra vehicular process application
NASA GSFC study for electron beam brazing. These were Equipment maintenance
not pursued during the construction of the ISS which is Gravity effects
based on modular assembly; the interconnection of its units Joint hermeticity.
uses rather traditional mechanical joints designed to be
compatible with EVA astronauts. For instance, truss joints
2.6.2 Potential Joining and Cutting Processes
are assembled by using tubular parts that are interlocked by
rst insertion, twisting and locking. Mechanical fastener
The following non-mechanical processes can be
tools have been used for more than two decades, one oper-
considered:
ation is shown in Fig. 2.28.
Adhesives, Arc welding, Brazing, Electron beam weld-
The use of mechanically assembled trusses for assem-
ing, Friction welding and Laser welding.
bling large structures is described by Watson et al. (2002),
These processes can be considered against the criteria listed
but in a later NASA work (Dorsey et al. 2012) proposes that
in Sect. 2.5.1, to select the most promising techniques as noted
although astronauts and robots can efciently construct
below. However, it must be noted that these considerations are
space structures with mechanical connections, it is the use of
subjective and would need extensive further evaluation:
custom-built welded structures that will be the game-
changers of the future. Organic Adhesives
The majority of spacecraft materials are coated (e.g. These offer a nominally simple means of bonding two
inorganic paints, silicones, specially conducting indium tin materials together, with fairly simple equipment and at rea-
oxides, alumina, silica, platinum, gold, and chemical con- sonable cost. They might be the most suitable means for
version coatings such as Alodine and the anodisation of joining carbon bre reinforced plastic components that have
aluminium alloys). This provides protection from terrestrial been designed to incorporate lap-joints into which adhesive
corrosion prior to launch. Coatings are also designed to resin can be injected. However, adhesives are not considered
ensure that surfaces have stable features, such as adequate to be suitable for general application during IVA or EVA
resistance to atomic oxygen and constant solar absorption activities since such joints suffer from poor hermeticity,
and emission properties in orbit. These coatings may affect usually high outgassing rates prior to curing under vacuum
subsequent joining/cutting operations. Therefore there is a and unknown reliability over time.
2.6 The Potential for Welding and Joining in a Space Environment 51
Arc Processes Brazing

The fundamental argument against using arc fusion pro-
Brazing is of limited use for the assembly of large structures
cesses in space is that an ionised gas, or plasma, is
in space, especially if they are made from alloys such as
required for any of the processes to operate. This means
AA2219, due to the lack of suitable brazing alloys. The
that, generally, arc processes exhibit a lack of vacuum
removal of oxidation layers (from ground storage) or pro-
stability and require copious amounts of gas. Gas is
tective coatings would be required prior to any brazing
supplied either from pressurised gas cylinders, or by a flux
operation. Presently the most suitable/versatile method for
coating. However, a variant of gas tungsten arc welding
the heating of braze alloys is via an electron beam. This
(GTAW) However, a variant of the GTAW process,
technique is difcult to adapt for the repair/patching of
which uses a hollow tungsten electrode, was rst devel-
damaged structures. Flom (2006) has, however developed a
oped for welding in a vacuum during research activity
low temperature brazing process, where heat is delivered
starting in 1965 at the E O Paton Electric Welding
from an electron gun and, under high vacuum, braze alloys
Institute. This equipment was tested in October 1969 on
based on Au-Sn can easily be drawn by capillary action into
the Soyuz 6 spacecraft (Fig. x) but the process did not
specially pre-prepared joints. [Flons EB brazing process
full expectations. GHTAW (gas hollow tungsten arc
was used in the refurbishment of an Italian spacecraft elec-
welding) requires only 1/1001/1000 the flow rate of gas
trode housing, see Sect. 4.28].
normally used at atmospheric pressure, but even this
concentration of plasma-forming gas in the arc gap zone Electron Beam Welding
could not be maintained. Development work continued Electron beam welding is particularly suitable for use in
and in 1973 Shiganov (1973) reports that a highly stable space. EB can be used as a very controllable heat source for
arc discharge could be maintained in an evacuated welding, brazing, soldering, cutting, original manufacture,
chamber on Earth. In 1986, Rocketdyne, a division of repair etc. on electrically conductive substrates. The material
Rockwell International, began development of similar heated during the welding process is minimallimited to a
hollow electrode technology in the US. In 1989, Rocket- very narrow fusion zone (of say 1 mm for a joint of 3 mm
dyne prepared a report for NASA proposing an extrave- thickness) and the heat affected zone (extending say 0.3 mm
hicular activity welding experiment and trails, made in beyond the fusion zone). As little material is heated, the
drop-shafts and in low gravity aboard an aircraft, gave process is extremely efcient compared with arc welding
encouraging results (Watson and Schnittgrund 1989). techniques. The method is utilised throughout the space
industry for the fabrication of space hardware, as described
The GTAW process offers the following advantages: in Sects. 4.2 and 4.13. Although narrow welds may be
Operation in both the vacuum environment in space and the produced with some lasers, the efciency of electron beam
pressurised environment inside the space vehicle is possible. generation can be in excess of 95 % compared with typically
Relatively wide tolerance in process variables (travel speed, 10 % for the most efcient laser. The Russian hand-held low
position and arc length) enables manual operation. This accelerating voltage (<8 kV) electron beam gun (named the
process is easily automated and relatively safe. Universal Hand Tool)as described by Paton (2003) and
GTAW is widely used to weld all common aerospace illustrated in Fig. 2.29has already been demonstrated in
alloyse.g. steels, Al and Ti alloys and is an established space EVAs for EB welding, heating and cutting.
technology. There are two main potential problems associated with EB
However, there are a number of notable disadvantages to equipment. First, the process generates X-rays at the point of
this process, namely: a gas supply required (heavy cylinders, impingement of the beam on the substrate. By choosing a low
need relling or replacing); is not a cutting technology. *10 kV voltage, as for the Universal Hand Tool, the addi-
Electrode damage due to vaporisation in vacuo (need to tional contribution to radiation exposure during EVA is likely
regrind or replace) and vaporised products may condense to be small. Secondly, if the welding beam should impinge on
and contaminate astronauts visor and other critical surfaces. (say) an astronaut during EVA, the risk of perforating the
Also, electromagnetic interference (EMI) may interfere with spacesuit is signicant. In the past this risk was deemed
electronics systems, plus high voltage or HF surges on arc unacceptable by NASA, but recent US activities (Flom 2006,
initiation could draw power away from other systems. Dorsey et al. 2012) indicate that safety considerations are
Therefore, it is considered that, whilst a useful technique, now acceptable, particularly when it is robots that perform
there may be other welding methods of greater merit. the handling, manipulation and EB welding tasks.
Fig. 2.30 Schematic drawing of friction stir welding
ll holes. There are several distinct processes, in which the

process mechanisms differ fundamentally. All of the pro-
cesses work better on fully penetrating holes, as it is often
difcult to completely eliminate defects at the bottom of
blind holes. Perhaps the most important process is friction
taper plug welding, where a tapered plug is friction welded
into a tapered hole. The process has been scaled up to make
plugs in material of up to 38 mm, but clearly the equipment
becomes more robust and heavier, and the power demands
greater. However, for aluminium materials of 10 mm or less,
Fig. 2.29 Universal hand-held 3 kW manual EB gun used on Mir such as the AA2219 alloy plate used on Spacelab and ISS, it
space station (source from 1999, Avtomaticheskaya Svarka, 10)
is feasible to consider this process.
Friction stud welding equipment is generally light and
The EB processes and EB equipment which can be uti- easily transportable, and the intermittent use of the equip-
lised in space are by no means perfect for every application, ment suggests that overheating of the motor in vacuum is not
but they currently offer the best compromise for many a major issue. Although it is only capable of welding studs to
applications as well as signicant scope for further rene- other structures, this can be developed with a little imagi-
ment and diversication in the future. nation to enable many construction and possible repair tasks
Friction Welding to be undertaken. It is probable that stud diameters should be
Unlike some processes, there is no published data on friction restricted to about 5 mm in order to reduce mass, and
welding in space. The principle of the friction stir welding increase ease of use in space, but this will also require an
(FSW) process is described in Sect. 4.25 and characterised increase in the rotation speed of the motor. Friction stud
by Fig. 2.30. This process is used extensively during the welding might be envisaged to plug damage caused from
manufacture of spacecraft hardware in many countries. micro-meteoroid impacts on pressurised spacecraft as illus-
Briefly, the heat is generated by a rotating tool, which trated in Fig. 2.31. Threaded studs might also be attached to
consists of a shoulder, which rests on the surface of the space structures and enable the further integration of hard-
material to be welded, and a pin, which penetrates almost the ware by mechanical screw fastening in space. Similar EVA
complete thickness. Frictional heat causes material to soften, was performed by an ESA astronaut (Fig. 2.28).
and the forward translation of the rotating tool causes Laser Welding
material to be pumped from the front of the tool to the rear, Lasers are a very attractive tool for application in space due
where it is consolidated under pressure to form a solid state to their versatility to weld, cut and repair metals and to a
weld. It is emphasised that there is no fusion in this process. certain extent, non-metals. Diode lasers appear to be the
Modications to the FSW process are termed friction most promising candidates due to their high efciency, small
taper plug and stud welding, these have also been adapted to size and low maintenance requirements. However, the
2.6 The Potential for Welding and Joining in a Space Environment 53
Nevertheless, it is expected that developments in the

brightness of diode lasers will increase the available power
density to be suitable for welding and repairing the materials
of interest for space applications.
2.6.3 Expectations
1. Electron beam (EB) welding is considered today, to be

the most applicable process for both joining and cutting
operations. In particular is the ease with which the pro-
cess can be adapted and its ability to be operated in a safe
manner. Extensive work has already been carried out on
EB welding in space and suitable, commercially avail-
able equipment is already on sale.
2. Friction welding has much potential for use in a space
Fig. 2.31 Microsection of friction stud weld made to 3 mm thick plate environments, although it is more suited to joining than
that contained a simulated impact crater. Note that no material debris to cutting. It is a versatile process, which can be used in
was released and a proper metallurgical joint exists between stud and arduous environments and suitable for the types of
plate (Dunn unpublished)
materials used in space construction.
current developments of diode lasers are not sufcient in
terms of power density, to produce welds or cuts within the
range of materials and thickness used in space applications.
http://www.springer.com/978-3-319-23361-1

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Requirements for Spacecraft Materials

Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 7

b Fig. 2.2 a Launch of the European orbital test satellite (OTS-2, in

The general development plan for a new satellite type

electric propulsionto optimise the satellites mass in

Whereas OTS generated 1260 W from its pair of solar

Table 2.1 (continued)

Table 2.1 (continued)

Table 2.1 (continued)

Table 2.5 Sublimation of metals and semiconductors in high vacuum

Based on data by Jaffe and Rittenhouse, California Institute of Technology

With the exception of pressure vessels, plumbing lines, liquid

(g) Material fatigue

(h) Spacecraft charging

In orbit or in deep space, spacecraft and space vehicles can

(i) Spacecraft in hibernation

Table 2.6 Selected launch vehicles

Comparative tests were made between this new propellant

Fig. 2.7 Launch vehicle inboard

Fig. 2.9 General view of the Zenit assembly hall

Fig. 2.8 A liquid propellant rocket engine

been described as highly automated (Isakowitz 1995).

Fig. 2.12 Cross-sectional view of combustion chamber wall showing

forms part of the quality assessments and assists in the

have had toe optimized in order to achieve the tanks

for rendezvous with ISS. Falcon 9 has nine rst-stage engines

b Fig. 2.16 a Evening view of a mock-up Vega launch vehicle within

be the effect of the flight prole on IMVs structural mate-

and composite materials for an equally exhaustive list of

Fig. 2.18 a Illustration of a

build a large solar sail; it would have the smallest mass

Fig. 2.22 Example of an early hollow bre repair sample seen by

Fig. 2.21 Illustration of the InflateSail 3U CubeSat with 1 m long

Fig. 2.23 Scanning electron

environment, such novel lubrication methods might

certain antithesis between coating of the structure to ensure

Range of material compositions, their coatings and form,

Arc Processes Brazing

Fig. 2.30 Schematic drawing of friction stir welding

ll holes. There are several distinct processes, in which the

Nevertheless, it is expected that developments in the

1. Electron beam (EB) welding is considered today, to be

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