Space Hardware Sample Curation and Availability

A principal goal of NASA is to further detailed research into the nature of particulates in low-Earth orbit, and the effects of their impact onto spacecraft materials. Towards this goal, we have carefully selected a large variety of space-exposed materials from several satellites containing impact features, and returned them to the Curatorial Facility at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). These satellites are the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), Solar Maximum Satellite, Surveyor III Spacecraft, the European Recoverable Carrier (EURECA), and the Trek blanket from the MIR space Station. These surfaces thereby join lunar samples, Antarctic meteorites, and interplanetary dust as an additional source of extraterrestrial and space debris materials for scientific study. In addition, investigators wishing to characterize the type and amount of spacecraft debris will find materials of interest that can be utilized to address these goals.

All selected returned space hardware surfaces have been stored in the Facility for the Optical Inspection of Large Surfaces (FOILS Lab). The FOILS Lab is a dedicated facility for the storage and preliminary examination of space-exposed surfaces, and occupies class 10,000 clean room. The cleanliness of this facility thus exceeds that provided by the class 100,000 clean room used to house the space hardware during integration and deintegration activities.

The following tables list returned space hardware hardware received at JSC for curation by May, 1994, and which are still available for allocation and examination. We expect that more materials will be added to the curated materials list as time progresses.

• Listing of Available LDEF Core Samples
• Listing of Available LDEF Primary Surfaces
• Listing of Available Solar Maximum Satellite Samples
• Available EURECA Satellite Sample