MISSE7: Building a Permanent Environmental Testbed for the International Space Station

The Materials on the International Space Station Experiments (MISSE) provide low‐cost material exposure experiments on the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS). The original concept for a suitcase‐like box bolted to the ISS to passively expose materials to space has grown to include increasingly complex in situ characterization. As the ISS completes construction, the facilities available to MISSE experiments will increase dramatically. MISSE7 is the first MISSE to take advantage of this new infrastructure. In addition to material exposure, MISSE7 will include characterization of single‐event radiation effects on electronics and solar cell performance in LEO. MISSE7 will exploit the ISS Express Logistics Carrier power and data capabilities and will leave behind a MISSE specific infrastructure for future missions.