Testing of laser components subjected to exposure in space

Abstract

Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) missions provide an opportunity for developing space qualifiable materials by studying the response of novel materials when subjected to the synergistic effects of the harsh space environment. MISSE 6 was transported to the international Space Station (ISS) via STS 123 on March 11. 2008. The astronauts successfully attached the passive experiment containers (PEC) to external handrails of the international space station (ISS) and opened up for long term exposure. After more than a year of exposure attached to the station's exterior, the PEC with several hundred material samples returned to the earth with the STS-128 space shuttle crew that was launched on shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Aug. 28. Meanwhile, MISSE 7 launch is scheduled to be launched on STS 129 mission. MISSE-7 was launched on Space Shuttle mission STS-129 on Atlantis was launched on November 16, 2009. This paper will briefly review recent efforts on MISSE 6 and MISSE 7 missions at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC).

Balanced PIN-TIA photoreceiver with integrated 3 dB fiber coupler for distributed fiber optic sensors

“…These photodiodes have been successfully deployed in harsh environments, including space applications [2]. Recently, the balanced PIN-TIA photoreceiver, discussed in this paper, returned to Earth after spending 18 months on the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) 7 mission, which was launched on the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-129) on November 16, 2009, and returned on the Space Shuttle Endeavor (STS-134) on June 1, 2011 [3]. The survival of this device, shown in Fig.…”