ESTL Publishes Journal Paper on Long-Term Storage Considerations for Spacecraft Lubricants

ESTL have published a paper titled Long-Term Storage Considerations for Spacecraft Lubricants in the March 2020 issue of Lubricants Journal as part of the special issue of Tribology of Space Mechanisms. The paper can be freely accessed here.

Spacecraft mechanisms commonly undergo extended periods of storage, either on ground or in-flight. It is usually assumed that, when correctly applied, the properties of space lubricants (both fluid and solid) remain essentially unchanged during these storage periods. However, evidence is emerging to suggest time-variable and environmental dependence of the tribological behaviour of some vacuum lubricants, which may consequently impact mechanism functionality or life, and such become mission threatening. The current understanding of storage phenomena is rather incomplete, and this paper acts as a consolidation and review of recent experimental studies in this area.

If you would like to know more about long term storage effects of spacecraft lubricants, please do not hesitate to contact ESTL.