Efforts are underway to develop of a suite of tribometers capable of making extended measurements of friction on the International Space Station. This collaborative team consists of personnel from Boeing, NASA, the Air Force Laboratory, and the University of Florida. The participants are developing hardware that will be integrated during the summer of 2008 and is schedule for launch in 2009. The University of Florida is the lead hardware design team. The selection of the materials, characterization of the surfaces, and schedule of experiments are all open questions. Leadership by the MRSEC team would impact design of flight experiments, selection and preparation of samples, characterization of samples before launch and after their return, and in processing of data. These experiments are truly once in a lifetime opportunities with all launch costs, astronaut space walks, and hardware costs are shared by the collaborative team.

Prof. W. Gregory Sawyer
Mr. Brandon Krick