Micro-gravity and contamination roles in spaceflight laser failures

Hossin A. Abdeldayem; Edward Dowdye; John Canham; Shahin Ghazanshahi

doi:10.1117/12.615368

20 September 2005 Micro-gravity and contamination roles in spaceflight laser failures

Hossin A. Abdeldayem, Edward Dowdye, John Canham, Shahin Ghazanshahi

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5912, Operational Characteristics and Crystal Growth of Nonlinear Optical Materials II; 59120H (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.615368
Event: Optics and Photonics 2005, 2005, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

NASA is striving to develop a scientific understanding of the universe, the Earth-Sun System and the Earth's response to natural or human-induced changes. Space lasers are vital tools for NASA's missions to advance our understanding of space research and improving our prediction capability for climate, and natural hazards. Unfortunately, several past spaceflight missions that utilized lasers proved to be short-lived and unreliable. In this paper, we are shedding more light on the contamination issue in the absence of gravity. We performed a set of relevant experiments on liquids and subsequently correlated the results to the spaceflight laser environment. We found that in the absence of gravity the contamination plays a major role in spaceflight laser failures. We also proposed a methodology using the adsorption mechanism to be adopted in future spaceflight lasers to minimize the presence of contaminants in the laser compartment.

Citation Download Citation

Hossin A. Abdeldayem, Edward Dowdye, John Canham, and Shahin Ghazanshahi "Micro-gravity and contamination roles in spaceflight laser failures", Proc. SPIE 5912, Operational Characteristics and Crystal Growth of Nonlinear Optical Materials II, 59120H (20 September 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.615368

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