LDEF (Flight), S1006 : Balloon Material Degradation, Tray E06

The flight photograph was taken from the orbiter aft flight deck during the LDEF retrieval and shows the positions of four (4) LDEF experiments mounted in a three (3) inch deep LDEF peripheral tray. The Balloon Materials Degradation Experiment (S1006) experiment is located in the center one third (1/3rd) section, the Multiple Foil Microabrasion Package (MAP) Experiment (AO023) occupies the left one third (1/3rd) section, the Measurement of Heavy Cosmic-Ray Nuclei on LDEF Experiment (M0002-02) is located in the lower one half (1/2) of the right section and the Ion Beam Textured and Coated Surfaces Experiment (S1003) is shown in the top-right section of the tray.The tray flanges appear as pre- launch but the white paint dots on tray clamp blocks have varying degrees of discoloration. The paint color on the lower-center clamp block is white, paint on the left-center clamp block is lightly discolored and paint on the upper-right clamp block is heavily discolored. The Balloon Materials Degradation experiment, located in the center one third (1/3rd) tray section, consist of 38 polymer film specimen, in the form of either thin film or reinforced tape, and 24 fibrous cord specimen. The ends of each test polymer film specimen, approximately 1.0 inch wide and 6.0 inches long, were secured between aluminum clamp strips that attached to aluminum experiment mounting plates. The cord specimen, approximately 4.0 inches long, are secured along the left and right edges of the experiment mounting plates in a similar manner. The aluminum clamp strips and experiment mounting plates have a thermal coat of IITRI S13G-LO white paint. Non-magnetic stainless steel fasteners are used for the experiment assembly and for attaching the experiment mounting plate to the tray structure. The thin film polymeric material samples in the Balloon Materials Degradation experiment appear to have been severely degraded. All 26 of the unreinforced thin film samples have curled edges, 12 samples appear to have failed in tension and a significant portion of the 2 aluminized polymer samples appears to be missing. The reinforced thin film polymer samples are discolored but appear to have survived the mission intact . The IITRI S13G-LO white paint appears to have a light tan discoloration in areas not covered by experiment samples with some evidence that at least some of the discoloration occurred after sample failure.
NASA Identifier: L90-10454 S32-82-006