Atomic oxygen in low Earth orbit slowly eats spacecraft surfaces, and the ISS survives because engineers learned to coat, test, and replace the materials most vulnerable to it

Atomic oxygen, the most common particle in low Earth orbit, chemically erodes spacecraft surfaces continuously. The ISS survives only because every external material has been chosen, coated, and scheduled for replacement against this slow molecular attack. The post Atomic oxygen in low Earth orbit slowly eats spacecraft surfaces, and the ISS survives because engineers learned to coat, test, and replace the materials most vulnerable to it appeared first on Space Daily .