The Complex Irradiation Facility at DLR-Bremen

The performance of solar sails is significantly affected by both the sail geometry and the physical properties of used materials which degrade under space conditions. Hence it is of utmost importance for a sail-mission to select such sail materials which degrade as little as possible in space. The Complex Irradiation Facility (CIF) is a new laboratory at DLR-Bremen to study the degradation behavior of materials under space conditions. The CIF allows the simultaneous irradiation with three light sources and with a dual beam irradiation system for the bombardment of materials with electrons and protons having energies up to 100 keV. It is eminently suitable to perform degradation investigations at solar sail foils.