The instrumentation payloads of the Space Station polar platforms consist primarily of Earth Observing System (Eos) instruments and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) instruments. The accuracy, lifetime, and mission effectiveness of the instrumentation is adversely affected by the degradation of contamination sensitive surfaces. This paper describes the analysis and results of a study undertaken to select a propellant system for the polar platforms from a contamination standpoint, by evaluation of the potential contamination to three platforms, from three candidate propellant systems. In addition, this paper reports the results of a study which determined both the molecular and particulate contamination requirements for 37 Eos/NOAA instruments. These requirements provide an upper bound for acceptable levels of contamination.

Date Published: 1 January 1987
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 0777, Optical Systems Contamination: Effects, Measurement, Control, (1 January 1987); doi: 10.1117/12.967069

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0777:
Optical Systems Contamination: Effects, Measurement, Control
A. Peter M. Glassford, Editor(s)