TRMM project contamination control using molecular adsorbers
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 (United States)
- Swales and Associates, Inc., 5050 Powder Mill Road, Beltsville, Maryland 20705 (United States)
The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a spacecraft under development by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) and is scheduled for launch in August 1997. The spacecraft design includes the use of numerous optical instruments and the thermal control surfaces. In addition to the inherent contamination sensitivities of the optical and thermal systems, TRMM has had the added challenge of designing systems to function at a relatively low altitude (350 km), with solar exposure. Under these conditions, high atomic oxygen densities and potentially high levels of backscattered contamination (self-contamination), as well as UV photopolymerization effects, all pose major threats to sensitive TRMM elements. In considering the various contamination control paths to follow, the TRMM project management has opted for pursuing a relatively new, but very promising technology for the TRMM spacecraft in order to lower the on-orbit contamination levels. TRMM will be incorporating Molecular Adsorbers as part of the basic spacecraft design. This paper will summarize the TRMM requirements, describe the Molecular Adsorbers being fabricated for the mission, and discuss the expected benefits of this method of on-orbit contamination control. {copyright} {ital 1996 American Institute of Physics.}
- OSTI ID:
- 385426
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960109-; ISSN 0094-243X; TRN: 9618M0028
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 361, Issue 1; Conference: STAIF 96: space technology and applications international forum, Albuquerque, NM (United States), 7-11 Jan 1996; Other Information: PBD: Mar 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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