Astronaut Patrick G. Forrester works with the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) during extravehicular activity. The first MISSE experiment exposed 750 material samples to space from 2001 to 2005 to collect information on how different materials weather the space environment. The objective of MISSE is to develop affordable opportunities to conduct critical space exposure tests of space materials and components planned for future spacecraft. The experiment was the first externally mounted experiment on the International Space Station. On May 18, 2014, the SpaceX Dragon returned the latest MISSE experiments, MISSE-8, to Earth. Materials scientists from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, helped prepare samples for flight and will analyze the samples post-flight. Marshall worked with commercial companies and other government agencies to fly 96 experiment samples on MISSE-8, including thermal control coatings, heat shield materials, solar array materials and environmentally friendly spacecraft components, such as multi-layer insulation, paint markings, and innovative polymers.
Image credit: NASA/MSFC