Effects of long-term space environment exposure on optical substrates and coatings

Eastman Kodak Company included twelve substrate and coating samples on the LDEF structure. There were three fused silica and three ultra low expansion (ULETM) uncoated glass samples, two ULETM samples with a high reflectance silver coating, two fused silica samples with an antireflectance coating, and two fused silica samples with a solar rejection coating. A set of duplicate control samples was also manufactured and stored in a controlled environment for comparison purposes. Kodak's samples were included as a subset of the Georgia Institute of Technology tray, which was located on row 5-E, tray SOO50-2. This placed the samples on the trailing edge of the structure, which protected them from the effects of atomic oxygen bombardment. An evaluation of the flight samples for effects from the 5 year mission showed that a contaminant was deposited on the samples, a micrometeroid impact occurred on one of the samples, and the radiation darkening which was expected for the glass did not occur. The results are listed below in more detail.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.