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In January 1998 during the STS-89 mission, an eight section Russian solar array panel was retrieved after more than ten years exposure to the orbital space environment on the Russian space station Mir. Two darkened handrail samples from the Russian solar array have been evaluated for contamination; a section of a white paint covered rigid handrail and a section of woven fabric overwrapped around a flexible handhold. The handrail samples were evaluated using optical microscopy (OM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Optical properties were also obtained. Microscopy has shown the discolored areas to have thick layers of contaminant that has crazed and spalled off in regions. Energy dispersive spectroscopy revealed that the brown contaminant is composed of oxidized silicon. No silicon was present on the unexposed fabric over-wrap, and very small amounts were present in the white paint.

A low Earth orbital space experiment entitled, “Polymers Erosion And Contamination Experiment”, (PEACE) has been designed as a Get-Away Special (GAS Can) experiment to be accommodated as a Shuttle in-bay environmental exposure experiment. The first objective is to measure the atomic oxygen erosion yields of approximately 40 different polymeric materials by mass loss and erosion measurements using atomic force microscopy. The second objective is to evaluate the capability of identifying sources of silicone contamination through the use of a pin-hole contamination camera which utilizes environmental atomic oxygen to produce a contaminant source image on an optical substrate.