| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1763953 | Advances in Space Research | 2016 | 8 Pages |
•A silver film sensor is designed for in-situ measurement of atomic oxygen flux.•The quantitative model of atomic oxygen flux estimation is established.•The ground experiment is carried out and compared with Kapton film method.•The space flight test implements the in-situ measurement.
Research into the measurement of atomic oxygen (AO) flux in a low Earth orbit (LEO) is highly significant for the development of spacecraft surface materials as well as for enhancing the reliability of space instruments. In the present study, we studied a silver film resistance method for AO flux measurement and we established a quantitative calculation model. Moreover, we designed a silver film sensor for space flight tests with a mass of about 100 g and a peak power consumption of less than 0.2 W. The effect of AO on the silver film was demonstrated in a ground-based simulation experiment and compared with the Kapton-mass-loss method. For the space flight test, the AO flux was estimated by monitoring the change in the resistance in the linear part of the silver/AO reaction regime. Finally, the sensor was carried onboard our nanosatellite “TianTuo 1” to obtain in situ measurements of the AO flux during a 476 km sun synchronous orbit. The result was critically compared with theoretical predictions, which validated the design of this sensor.
