DEVELOPMENT OF A FACILITY FOR THE SIMULATION OF HIGH ENERGY SOLAR RADIATION

摘要

During post-flight investigations on LDEF and STSA the thermal blanket material FEP has shown important degradation of the mechanical properties, such as tensile strength and elongation. Analysis has related this effect mainly to irradiation by soft X-ray during solar flares. It has also been proven that other energetic particles play a role in the degradation process of FEP and other exposed materials. In order to study the effect of these different components in the solar radiation on materials, a facility, called SORASI has been developed and manufactured by AMOS (B) under ESA contract. This facility enables simultaneous irradiation of temperature controlled samples to X-ray (1.3- 1.5 KeV), electrons (5-30 KeV) and Vacuum UV (110-200 nm). The facility is further equipped with a detector system for quantifying the different fluences and enables the in-situ diagnostics of outgassing/degradation products using mass spectroscopy.