Tags: NASA, European Space Agency, Northrop Grumman
Publication: NetworkWorld.com
Publication Date: 11/20/2012

Telescope mirrors are one of many instruments that can be damaged by outgasses, which the new paint would eliminate. Image credit: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham

NASA has developed a new spray paint that blocks in gasses that could be harmful for sensitive satellite instruments. Outgasses from epoxies, lubricants, solvents, and similar materials are detrimental for the integrity of devices such as cryogenic instruments, thermal-control units, telescope mirrors, and high-voltage electronic boxes, potentially shortening their operational lives.

To prevent outgasses from adhering to these types of instruments and spacecraft surfaces, NASA engineers created this porous and permeable spray paint that absorbs the gasses’ molecules without creating additional gasses. The discovery is still pending patent.

According to NASA, firms such as the European Space Agency, Spica Technologies, Northrop Grumman and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder are interested in the new paint. There are still some tests to be done but if everything turns out successful, the Agency might use the paint for its ICESat2 ATLAS project and on the International Space Station in the future.

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