Effects of Cleaning of Coated Tedlar Samples on Space Environmenta1 Performance

Abstract : A space environment exposure test has been performed on samples of Cloud White Tedlar with a multi-layer thin-film coating on the surface applied by Optical Coatings Laboratory, Inc. (OCLI) representing potential spacecraft applications. This test was performed to simulate a LEO ultraviolet (UV) exposure on a subset of samples representative of a piece of space hardware that had inadvertently been exposed to water. A test was needed to provide data on the amount of optical degradation that might be caused by cleaning the material surfaces and ascertain that the amount of degradation would be acceptable. Cleaning a damaged surface increases end-of-life solar absorptance by about 0.014. This suggests that over 90% of the coating remains in place. For thermal control surfaces installed on the hardware, this would result in an end-of-life solar absorptance of about 0.28 due to UV exposure. Other factors would also affect the end-of-life value.