NASA Langley Research Center
Hampton, Virginia

Materials

	Langley Home Page
	Space Environments &Technology Archive System Home Page
	Space Environments &Effects Home Page
	NASA Home Page

If you would like to receive further information on SETAS, or have suggestions on what information you would like to see accessible through this archive, please fill out the SETAS request form. SETAS Request Information

Responsible Parties: Page Content: William H. Kinard Page Construction: Thomas H. See

Ceramics and Glasses

LDEF contained a variety of ceramic and glass materials. These materials have applications including electronics and optics. Issues of concern for most optical materials are scattering induced by particulates (even single particulates) on the surface, thin molecular film contamination lowering the transmission through the glass, and catastrophic damage due to meteoroid or debris impacts. Ceramic materials, such as Si₃N₄, were essentially inert to the environmental exposure with the exception of some darkening on the surface due to contamination layers.

A number of summary documents and publications have reported the results of examinations of the many optical specimens flown on LDEF. Dr. Donald Blue, Georgia Tech Research Institute, produced several such reports, the most recent of which is included in the Systems SIG report, Analysis of Systems Hardware Flown on LDEF - New Findings and Comparisons to Other Retrieved Spacecraft Hardware, NASA CR, 1995. One of the databases developed by the Systems and Materials SIGs is exclusively dedicated to optical materials.

LDEF Archive System Home Page