FRICTION UNITS IN SPACE

The high importance of cosmic research is stressed. The absence of an oxidizing medium, a vacuum, sublimation, the enhanced volatility of lubricants, thermal stresses, high temperature gradients, radiation, weightlessness, the effect of micrometeorites, and other space factors make the tribology of mechanical systems a hardly solvable problem, especially so for long-term objects. Inapplicability of the conventional methods of designing friction units in the tribological resource is stressed and their specific features are demonstrated.