Materials International Space Station Experiment
Encyclopedia
The Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE), is a series of experiments mounted externally on the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

 (ISS) that investigates the effects of long-term exposure of materials to the harsh space environment.

The MISSE project evaluates the performance, stability, and long-term survivability of materials and components planned for use by NASA, commercial companies and the Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

 (DOD) on future low Earth orbit
Low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km...

 (LEO), synchronous orbit
Synchronous orbit
A synchronous orbit is an orbit in which an orbiting body has a period equal to the average rotational period of the body being orbited , and in the same direction of rotation as that body.-Properties:...

 and interplanetary space missions. The Long Duration Exposure Facility
Long Duration Exposure Facility
NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility, or LDEF, was a school bus-sized cylindrical space experiment rack that exposed various material samples to outer space for about 5.7 years, completing 32,422 Earth orbits.- Construction :...

 (LDEF), which was retrieved in 1990 after spending 68 months in LEO, revealed that space environments are very hostile to many spacecraft materials and components. Atomic oxygen, which is the most prevalent atomic species encountered in low earth orbit, is highly reactive with plastics and some metals, causing severe erosion
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...

.

There is also extreme ultraviolet radiation due to the lack of an atmospheric filter. This radiation deteriorates and darkens many plastics and coatings. The vacuum
Vacuum
In everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...

 in space also alters the physical properties of many materials. Impacts of meteoroid
Meteoroid
A meteoroid is a sand- to boulder-sized particle of debris in the Solar System. The visible path of a meteoroid that enters Earth's atmosphere is called a meteor, or colloquially a shooting star or falling star. If a meteoroid reaches the ground and survives impact, then it is called a meteorite...

s and orbiting man-made debris
Space debris
Space debris, also known as orbital debris, space junk, and space waste, is the collection of objects in orbit around Earth that were created by humans but no longer serve any useful purpose. These objects consist of everything from spent rocket stages and defunct satellites to erosion, explosion...

 can damage all materials exposed in space. The combined effects of all of these environments on spacecraft can only be investigated in space. MISSE evaluates materials currently being used and those planned for use in future space missions.

MISSE is a direct successor of the Mir Environmental Effects Payload
Mir Environmental Effects Payload
The Mir Environmental Effects Payload was a set of four experiments installed on the Russian space station Mir from 1996 to 1997 to study the effects of space debris impacts and exposure to the space environment on a variety of materials...

s (MEEP) that were attached for over a year to the Mir Docking Module
Mir Docking Module
The Stykovochnyy Otsek , GRAU index 316GK, otherwise known as the Mir docking module or SO, was the sixth module of the Russian space station Mir, launched in November 1995 aboard the...

 of the space station Mir
Mir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...

 between shuttle flights STS-76
STS-76
STS-76 was NASA's 76th Space Shuttle mission, and the 16th mission for Atlantis. STS-76 launched on 22 March 1996 at 3:13 am EST from Kennedy Space Center launch pad 39B...

 and STS-86
STS-86
STS-86 was a Space Shuttle Atlantis mission to the Mir space station. This was the last Atlantis mission before it was taken out of service temporarily for maintenance and upgrades, including the glass cockpit.-Crew:-Crew notes:...

; and is a descendant of the Long Duration Exposure Facility
Long Duration Exposure Facility
NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility, or LDEF, was a school bus-sized cylindrical space experiment rack that exposed various material samples to outer space for about 5.7 years, completing 32,422 Earth orbits.- Construction :...

. Also MEEPS can trace their inception to the Passive Optical Sample Array (POSA) sample trays flown on STS-1
STS-1
STS-1 was the first orbital flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program. Space Shuttle Columbia launched on 12 April 1981, and returned to Earth on 14 April, having orbited the Earth 37 times during the 54.5-hour mission. It was the first American manned space flight since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project...

 and STS-2
STS-2
STS-2 was a Space Shuttle mission conducted by NASA, using the Space Shuttle Columbia. The mission launched on 12 November 1981. It was the second shuttle mission overall, and was also the second mission for Columbia...

, and their successor Effects of Oxygen Interaction with Materials (EOIM) on STS-3
STS-3
STS-3 was NASA's third Space Shuttle mission, and was the third mission for the Space Shuttle Columbia. It was the first shuttle launch with an unpainted external tank, and the only mission to land at the White Sands Space Harbor near Las Cruces, New Mexico.-Crew:-Backup crew:-Mission...

 and STS-5
STS-5
STS-5 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission, the fifth shuttle mission overall and the fifth flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia. It was the first shuttle mission to deploy communications satellites into orbit...

.

Materials tested

About 1,508 samples are being tested on the MISSE project. Samples range from components such as switches, sensors and mirrors to materials like polymer
Polymer
A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units. These subunits are typically connected by covalent chemical bonds...

s, coating
Coating
Coating is a covering that is applied to the surface of an object, usually referred to as the substrate. In many cases coatings are applied to improve surface properties of the substrate, such as appearance, adhesion, wetability, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and scratch resistance...

s, and composites
Composite material
Composite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...

. There are also biological materials such as seeds, spores and various types of bacteria being evaluated. Each material on the mission had to be individually tested in the laboratory prior to being selected. The ultimate test for the materials is when they are exposed to the space environment. In the laboratory, each material can only be exposed to one particular simulated environment at a time. In space, they are exposed to all of the environments at once. Besides testing new materials, MISSE will also be addressing questions concerning current materials, such as those being used in communication satellites which are being plagued with premature failures of the solar cell power arrays. New generations of solar cells with longer expected lifetimes will also be tested.

MISSE will also be testing coatings used to control heat absorption and emission temperatures of satellites. The hostile environment of space limits the useful life of currently used coatings. New coatings, which are expected to be much more stable in space and therefore have longer useful lives, will be tested. MISSE will also address a major problem for a manned exploration of Mars: shielding the crew from the very energetic cosmic ray
Cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...

s found in interplanetary space. New concepts for lightweight shields will be tested on MISSE. Ultra-light membrane structures are planned for solar sails, large inflatable mirrors and lenses. The effects of micrometeoroid impacts on these materials will also be investigated.

Deploying MISSE

The materials selected for the mission are placed into suitcase-like Passive Experiment Containers (PECs). The PECs are used for transporting experiments to and from ISS. During an EVA
Extra-vehicular activity
Extra-vehicular activity is work done by an astronaut away from the Earth, and outside of a spacecraft. The term most commonly applies to an EVA made outside a craft orbiting Earth , but also applies to an EVA made on the surface of the Moon...

 they are placed on handrails or at an exposed experiment facility of the ISS. The experiments are photographed several times during their stay outside if possible, usually whenever an opportunity arises due to a scheduled EVA. After exposure in space, MISSE is retrieved in the same manner as it was deployed, the material samples are tested to see if they still have the unique properties needed to complete space missions. MISSEs have active and passive detectors to give a time-history reading, or a reading of what happened to the materials at certain points in time. Back on the ground, tests will be conducted to determine the effects of its exposure. These tests will determine which materials are strong enough to survive in space.

Originally it was planned to have MISSE-1 and 2 deployed for about a year and MISSE-3 and 4 for up to three years. Due to the grounding of the shuttle fleet after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, when shortly before it was scheduled to conclude its 28th mission, STS-107, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas and Louisiana during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in the death of all seven crew members...

 required that changes be made to these plans. MISSEs 1 and 2 provided the three-year data and MISSEs 3 and 4 have provided the one-year data.

MISSE-1 and MISSE-2

The first and second set of experiments was launched by , during mission STS-105
STS-105
STS-105 was a mission of the Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, 10 August 2001. This mission was Discoverys final mission until STS-114, because Discovery was grounded for a refit, and then all Shuttles were grounded in the wake...

, on 10 August 2001 and contained 910 specimens of various materials. It was installed in two separate airlock handrails located on the Quest Joint Airlock and high-pressure gas tanks.

On 30 July 2005, during the first EVA of mission STS-114
STS-114
-Original crew:This mission was to carry the Expedition 7 crew to the ISS and bring home the Expedition 6 crew. The original crew was to be:-Mission highlights:...

, both experiments were retrieved.



MISSE-5

This was the third MISSE experiment launched, although the fifth MISSE PEC. MISSE-5 was launched by on mission STS-114
STS-114
-Original crew:This mission was to carry the Expedition 7 crew to the ISS and bring home the Expedition 6 crew. The original crew was to be:-Mission highlights:...

, on 26 July 2005 and contained 254 specimens of various materials. It was installed on the P6 truss and a year later, during the third EVA of mission STS-115
STS-115
Note:The P3/P4 Truss segment and batteries were so heavy that the crew count was reduced from seven to six.-Crew notes:...

 on 15 September 2006, the MISSE-5 package was retrieved.

MISSE-5 contained three investigations. One experiment the Forward Technology Solar Cell Experiment (FTSCE), a performance test of 36 solar cells for use on future spacecraft. The second investigation measured the degradation of more than 200 flexible materials in the space environment. The third experiment involved the PCSat-2
PCSat2
PCSat2 is an amateur radio satellite created by the US Naval Academy.It was installed on the International Space Station on August 3, 2005. PCSAT2 was recovered from the outside of the ISS by astronauts on the 3rd EVA of mission STS-115 and was return to Earth.PCsat2 transmitted packet bursts every...

 that provided a communications system and tested the Amateur Satellite Service off-the-shelf solution for telemetry command and control. MISSE-5 was the first active experiment of the MISSE series. It required power and could communicate with the ground through PCSat-2.



MISSE-3 and MISSE-4

The fourth and fifth set of MISSE experiments (MISSE PEC3 and MISSE PEC4) were launched by , during mission STS-121
STS-121
STS-121 was a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station flown by Space Shuttle Discovery. The main purposes of the mission were to test new safety and repair techniques introduced following the Columbia disaster of February 2003 as well as to deliver supplies, equipment and...

, on 3 August 2006 and contained 875 specimens of various materials. The MISSE-3 was installed on one of the high-pressure tanks around the crew lock and the MISSE-4 on the outboard end of the Quest Joint Airlock by the Expedition 13
Expedition 13
Expedition 13 was the 13th expedition to the International Space Station , and launched at 02:30 UTC on 30 March 2006. The expedition used the Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft, which stayed at the station for the duration of the expedition for emergency evacuation....

's crew.
A year later, during the fourth EVA of mission STS-118
STS-118
- Crew notes :Astronaut Clayton Anderson originally was slated to be launched to the ISS on this mission, but was moved to STS-117. His replacement was Alvin Drew....

 on 18 August 2007, the MISSE-3 and 4 experiments were retrieved.

MISSEs 3 and 4 also served an educational purpose, it flew approximately eight million basil
Basil
Basil, or Sweet Basil, is a common name for the culinary herb Ocimum basilicum , of the family Lamiaceae , sometimes known as Saint Joseph's Wort in some English-speaking countries....

 seeds that were given to children for science experiments, in order to stimulate interest in space science.



MISSE-6

The sixth set of MISSE experiments, labeled 6A and 6B, were launched by , during mission STS-123
STS-123
-Mission parameters:* Mass:* Orbiter liftoff: * Orbiter landing: * Perigee: 336 kilometers * Apogee: 346 kilometers * Inclination: 51.6 degrees* Period: 91.6min-Mission payloads:...

, on 13 March 2008 and contain over 400 specimens of various materials. It was installed on the Columbus
Columbus (ISS module)
Columbus is a science laboratory that is part of the International Space Station and is the largest single contribution to the ISS made by the European Space Agency ....

 External Payload Facility. Installation was attempted during the third EVA
Extra-vehicular activity
Extra-vehicular activity is work done by an astronaut away from the Earth, and outside of a spacecraft. The term most commonly applies to an EVA made outside a craft orbiting Earth , but also applies to an EVA made on the surface of the Moon...

, however the case did not initially fit onto the bracket. It was successfully installed during the fifth EVA.

Both MISSE 6A and 6B were retrieved during the first EVA of mission STS-128
STS-128
-Crew notes:Nicole Stott was originally scheduled to return aboard Soyuz TMA-15, but a change in the flight plan was made due to the possible flight delays in future shuttle missions, which may extend Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk's mission beyond the six-month duration preferred for station...

 and returned to Earth.



MISSE-7

The seventh set of MISSE experiments was located on ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 2
EXPRESS Logistics Carrier
An ExPRESS logistics carrier is an unpressurized attached payload platform for the International Space Station that provides mechanical mounting surfaces, electrical power, and command and data handling services for Orbital Replacement Units as well as science experiments on the ISS...

. They were brought to the station in November 2009 aboard mission STS-129
STS-129
-Crew seat assignments:-Mission payload:-ExPRESS Logistics Carriers 1 and 2:The primary payload of STS-129 was the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier and the ELC-2. The mass capacity of each ELC is with a volume of 30 meters cubed...

.

MISSE-7 is composed of two suitcase-sized Passive Experiment Containers (PECs), identified as MISSE 7A and MISSE 7B. Once installed in the exterior of ISS by space walking astronauts, the PECs were opened. The orientation of MISSE 7A was space facing/Earth facing while MISSE 7B faced forward/backward relative to the ISS orbit. Both MISSE 7A and MISSE 7B contained active and passive experiments. Passive experiments are designed for pre- and post-flight evaluation in ground-based laboratories. Being a first in the MISSE program, active experiments are designed to interface with the power and communication systems on ISS allowing data to be transmitted back to Earth.

MISSE-7 also contained experiments mounted to its ExPA base. These experiments included SpaceCube
SpaceCube
SpaceCube is a family of high-performance reconfigurable systems designed for spaceflight applications requiring on-board processing. The SpaceCube was developed by engineers at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The SpaceCube 1.0 system is based on Xilinx's Virtex-4 commercial FPGAs...

 which was developed by engineers at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and is a reconfigurable, high-performance system based on Xilinx's Virtex-4 commercial FPGAs designed for spaceflight applications requiring compute intensive on-board processing. The MISSE-7 SpaceCube
SpaceCube
SpaceCube is a family of high-performance reconfigurable systems designed for spaceflight applications requiring on-board processing. The SpaceCube was developed by engineers at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The SpaceCube 1.0 system is based on Xilinx's Virtex-4 commercial FPGAs...

’s purpose was to serve as an “on-orbit” test-bed for demonstrating “radiation hardened by software” program execution and error detection and correction techniques that will help enable the use of commercial processing devices in space.

The Naval Research Laboratory handled primary responsibility for MISSE 7A, while the Air Force Research Laboratory
Air Force Research Laboratory
The Air Force Research Laboratory is a scientific research organization operated by the United States Air Force Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of affordable aerospace warfighting technologies; planning and executing the Air Force science and...

, NASA, Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

, other industry collaborators, and academia had experiments on MISSE 7B.

The two PECs were collected for return to Earth during the STS-134 mission.



MISSE-7 Experiments

  • SpaceCube
    SpaceCube
    SpaceCube is a family of high-performance reconfigurable systems designed for spaceflight applications requiring on-board processing. The SpaceCube was developed by engineers at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The SpaceCube 1.0 system is based on Xilinx's Virtex-4 commercial FPGAs...

     is a small, light-weight, reconfigurable multi-processor platform for space flight applications demanding extreme processing capabilities. It utilizes a stackable architecture and is based on Xilinx Virtex 4 FX60 FPGAs (2 per processor card). The SpaceCube's first mission was on Hubble Servicing Mission 4
    STS-125
    STS-125, or HST-SM4 , was the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope .Launch occurred on 11 May 2009 at 2:01 pm EDT...

     as part of the Relative Navigation Sensors experiment. The SpaceCube will provide an on-orbit test platform for demonstrating innovative radiation hardened by software techniques.

MISSE-8

The STS-134
STS-134
STS-134 was the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The mission marked the 25th and final flight of . This flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the International Space Station. Mark Kelly served as the mission commander...

 mission, launched May 2011, delivered the MISSE PEC8 experiment and returned MISSE PEC7A & PEC7B to earth. MISSE-7 had been on the ISS since its delivery on STS-129
STS-129
-Crew seat assignments:-Mission payload:-ExPRESS Logistics Carriers 1 and 2:The primary payload of STS-129 was the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier and the ELC-2. The mass capacity of each ELC is with a volume of 30 meters cubed...

.

On STS-134
STS-134
STS-134 was the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The mission marked the 25th and final flight of . This flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the International Space Station. Mark Kelly served as the mission commander...

 MISSE-8 was only one PEC, STS-135
STS-135
STS-135 was the final mission of the American Space Shuttle program. It used the orbiter Atlantis and hardware originally processed for the STS-335 contingency mission, which was not flown. STS-135 launched on 8 July and was originally scheduled to land on 20 July 2011, but the mission was...

 crewmen added the MISSE-8 ORMatE-III exposure plate to the second MISSE mount.




Participants in MISSE

The MISSE Project is a cooperative endeavor managed by NASA Langley Research Center. Participants include: Johnson Space Center, Marshall Space Flight Center
Marshall Space Flight Center
The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. The largest center of NASA, MSFC's first mission was developing the Saturn launch vehicles for the Apollo moon program...

, Glenn Research Center
Glenn Research Center
NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a NASA center, located within the cities of Brook Park, Cleveland and Fairview Park, Ohio between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Cleveland Metroparks's Rocky River Reservation, and has other subsidiary facilities in Ohio...

, the Materials Laboratory at the Air Force Research Laboratory
Air Force Research Laboratory
The Air Force Research Laboratory is a scientific research organization operated by the United States Air Force Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of affordable aerospace warfighting technologies; planning and executing the Air Force science and...

,Infosight Corporation and the Boeing Phantom Works
Boeing Phantom Works
The Phantom Works division is the advanced prototyping arm of the Defense and Security side of The Boeing Company. Its primary focus is developing advanced military products and technologies, many of them highly classified, and has produced breakthroughs in defense, space and security.Founded by...

. Shuttle/ISS MISSE integration is performed by the USAF’s DoD Space Shuttle and ISS Payload Integration Directorate.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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