Space polymers erosion in simulated LEO and VLEO environments

Abstract

Abstract The VLEO satellites, that are orbiting at an altitude of 200-300 km and that provide advantages for high-resolution Earth observation and atmospheric science, are becoming important not only for science, but also for agriculture, forestry, and oceans observations, for military, national security and the future of satellite businesses. We evaluated, for the first time, the performance and defined the erosion yields (Ey) for a selected number of main space hydrocarbon, fluorinated, and perfluorinated polymers in the ground-based simulator facility at conditions, imitating the LEO and VLEO environments. We also compared the results with the data for polymers erosion in LEO and with the previously established predictive model, developed for polymers and composites in LEO environment. The obtained data indicated that the predictive model can be extended and used, with some corrections for the predictions of space polymers erosion in the VLEO environment.