Space Tribometers: Design for Exposed Experiments on Orbit

作者：Krick Brandon A; Sawyer W Gregory^*

来源：Tribology Letters, 2011, 41(1): 303-311.

DOI：10.1007/s11249-010-9689-y

• Space tribology
• Tribometers
• Aerospace
• Coating
• Solid lubricants
• Low earth orbit

Eight pin-on-disk tribometers have been made for testing materials in space on board the International Space Station. They will be exposed directly to the low earth orbit (LEO) environment on board the "Materials on the International Space Station Experiments" platform where they will experience extreme conditions including atomic oxygen, ultrahigh vacuum, radiation (including UV radiation), and thermal ranges from -40 to 60 A degrees C. In order to survive launch and LEO, these tribometers were designed to be extremely compact, rugged, and reliable. Pin-on-disk tribology experiments are now being performed with a 13.2 mm/s sliding velocity (14 RPM at 9 mm wear track radius) and a 1 N normal load with hemispherical pin of 1.5875 mm radius. Materials tested include MoS(2)/Sb(2)O(3)/Au, MoS(2)/Sb(2)O(3)/C, YSZ/Au/MoS(2)/DLC, and SiO-doped DLC coatings, and bulk samples of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) alumina nanocomposites and gold.

• 出版日期2011-1