Tribological Design Criteria and Standards for Spacecraft Mechanisms

摘要

The tribologist is called upon to solve friction and wear problems in many diverse environments. One of the more unusual is vacuum and, more specifically, the vacuum of space, where modern spacecraft bristle with moving components. This invited paper describes a recently developed Space Engineering Mechanism Standard (ECSS-E-30, Part 3), that includes a significant number of mandatory tribological criteria to ensure the continued reliability of newly developed hardware.