Polymer Analysis

Experiment Lead: Zeqing (Richard) Li

The objective of the project is to test the performance of polypropylene (PP) polymers in the International Space Station (ISS), under an amount of cosmic ray exposure. The polymer sample will be examined under atomic force microscopy (AFM) after coming back from the space and the parameters such as its roughness and its elastic coefficient will be measured. The test results will be compared with those of the samples that didn't go to the space. If no big difference on properties of the polymer was found, then it suggests that the polymer can be used in the devices carried by the spacecrafts without problem. However, if some big differences are found on the performance of the polymer, it suggests that the usage of the polymer in space will be limited.