Title :
Atomic oxygen effects on SiOx coated Kapton for photovoltaic arrays in low Earth orbit
Author :
Rutledge, Sharon K. ; Olle, Raymond M. ; Cooper, Jill M.
Author_Institution :
NASA Lewis Res. Center, Cleveland, OH, USA
Abstract :
Commercially applied SiOx was evaluated as a protective coating for the polyimide Kapton solar array blankets for Space Station Freedom. Three different rolls of coated material were tested in a plasma asher to determine their durability to attack by atomic oxygen. Mass loss data indicated that all of the coatings tested would structurally survive for 15 years in LEO (low Earth orbit), except for one which had several uncoated lines across the sample which were caused by ridgelanes in the Kapton. It appears that the size rather than number of defects alone effects the mass loss the most. Careful handling of the material after coating and during processing may be critical for array survival
Keywords :
polymers; protective coatings; silicon compounds; solar cell arrays; space vehicle power plants; SiOx; Space Station Freedom; atomic oxygen; low Earth orbit; mass loss; photovoltaic arrays; plasma asher; polyimide Kapton solar array blankets; protective coating; Coatings; Costing; Low earth orbit satellites; Materials testing; NASA; Oxygen; Photovoltaic systems; Plasma materials processing; Protection; Solar power generation;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1991., Conference Record of the Twenty Second IEEE
Conference_Location :
Las Vegas, NV
Print_ISBN :
0-87942-636-5
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.1991.169463
