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From: dietz%USC-CSE@USC-ECL.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: That rusty old shuttle
Message-ID: <414@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Mar-84 12:24:00 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.414
Posted: Thu Mar 29 12:24:00 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Apr-84 20:16:27 EST
Lines: 10

NASA has discovered corrosion problems during shuttle flights.  You'd
think that, in orbit, there'd be no corrosion in the vacuum.
Unfortunately, the shuttle orbits in a region occupied by a very thin
gas of atomic oxygen, which is very reactive.  Since the shuttle is
flying through the gas so fast, it is estimated that an atom on the
shuttle's surface is hit by an oxygen atom once every second.  Plastics
have been found to deteriorate rapidly in this environment.  Erosion
rates of 1/2000 of a inch per day have been found.  The atomic oxygen
also attacks the binder in paints; NASA has noticed the paint on the
inside of the cargo bay coming off after each flight.