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Whisker/Cone growth on the thermal control surfaces experiment no. S0069

Author
Miller, Edgar R.
Published
Feb 1, 1995.
Physical Description
1 electronic document
Additional Creators
Mell, Richard J., Coston, James E., Jr., Wilkes, Donald R., and Zwiener, James M.
Online Version

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Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available.
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Summary
An unusual surface 'growth' was found during scanning electron microscope (SEM) investigations of the Thermal Control Surface Experiment (TCSE) S0069 front thermal cover. This 'growth' is similar to the cone type whisker growth phenomena as studied by G. K. Wehner beginning in the 1960's. Extensive analysis has identified the most probable composition of the whiskers to be a silicate type glass. Sources of the growth material are outgassing products from the experiment and orbital atomic oxygen, which occurs naturally at the orbital altitudes of the LDEF mission in the form of neutral atomic oxygen. The highly ordered symmetry and directionality of the whiskers are attributed to the long term (5.8 year) stable flight orientation of the LDEF.
Other Subject(s)
Collection
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Collection.
Note
Document ID: 19950017491.
Accession ID: 95N23911.
NASA. Langley Research Center, LDEF: 69 Months in Space. Third Post-Retrieval Symposium, Part 2; p 771-790.
Terms of Use and Reproduction
No Copyright.
View MARC record | catkey: 15654397