Combined Radiation and Environmental Effects Testing for ESA’s Space Projects

The Environmental Testing Team in ESA’s Materials Physics and Chemistry Section is tasked with supporting ESA’s space projects to verify the performance of exposed items in simulated space environments. For this purpose, the group’s experimental capabilities include a wide range of radiation and environmental test facilities and associated measurement techniques, ready to adapt for new missions. Combined testing is performed to assess the impact of different environmental factors, using both simultaneous and sequential irradiation. Flight experiments are also undertaken when the opportunities are available to compare the performance of items exposed to the ground and space environment.<br/><br/>This paper will present results of radiation and environmental effects testing recently performed in our laboratories for various space projects and early phase technology development studies. This includes UV exposure of white ceramic coatings for the Earth Return Orbiter, high intensity solar illumination testing of optical coatings, combined radiation and atomic oxygen testing of thermal control paints and combined UV and particle radiation testing of deposited contamination layers on optical coatings.<br/><br/>An update will be provided on an activity being performed with ESA’s industrial partners to test optical coating samples in a simulated space radiation environment. The testing will be complemented by numerical modelling and simulations, in order to establish a set of practical lessons learnt and best practices for radiation testing. In the future, this shall be used to support the development of a new European test standard on radiation testing of optical coatings for space applications.<br/><br/>The paper will also describe some of the new facilities and testing techniques under development within our team for future missions. This includes a multipurpose radiation simulation facility for combined environmental testing of cube-sat class items and small payloads, and a combined dust contamination and radiation effects simulation facility for lunar surface studies. To conclude, a new “open lab” campaign on Radiation and Environmental Effects Testing will be described. This campaign is being planned to provide opportunities for academia and small enterprises to make use of the environmental test facilities within ESA, in support of early phase developments for future space projects. A short update will also be provided on the on-going preparations for the EuroMaterialAgeing flight experiment, which will be expose materials to combined radiation environments in the real space environment.