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The BepiColombo mission to planet Mercury requires the availability of advanced thermal control materials to cope with the extreme heat and radiation fluxes exposed to in the vicinity of Mercury. In a first activity, a new Multi-Layer Insulation has been developed able to withstand the high temperatures and particle fluxes. Advanced materials are used in the MLI for the reflection screens as well as for the spacers. In addition, a sun shield has been defined using a ceramic fabric. In a current activity a Solar Reflector Coating, an Optical Surface Reflector and an Infrared Rejection Device are being developed. This paper presents the current status in the development of the thermal insulation and other thermal control components required for the BepiColombo mission. The selection of the materials is presented and, as far as already available, results from the characterization testing.

In the paper an activity to assess candidate foam materials for insulation of liquid hydrogen tank of reusable launchers is reported. This work has been performed jointly by DaimlerChrysler Aerospace and ESA/ESTEC. A screening of commercial materials has been carried out on the basis of supplier's data and characterisation tests at sample level in a large range of temperature. Most of the materials pre-selected has shown performance considerably lower than the target goal and only one, although with some limitations, has been retained as candidate. Recommended future activities are also presented.

Surface materials exposed to low earth orbit environment for a prolonged time will be attacked by ultraviolet radiation and atomic oxygen. In combination with frequent thermal cycling the materials may change their structural and thermo-optical properties due to degradation and erosion resulting in an alteration of the initial surface morphology and chemistry. The stability of the materials can at best be investigated by direct exposure to the environment on a spacecraft. For this reason material exposition experiments (AOST and AOET) were organized on the European Retrievable Carrier EURECA and on the German SPACELAB D2 mission, respectively. This paper describes the thermal control coatings and the structural protective coatings investigated and the degradation results due to low earth orbit exposure