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RE: Behind the Scenes Tour at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Part 2: Crew & Thermal Systems Division
Wow, this is amazing! I noticed how most of the tools are white, do you know why that is? I guess it for easy visibility...
I'm told that the the white color is actually due to a coating that is designed to reflect the sun's rays so that the tools do not get hot, while also avoiding deterioration due to atomic oxygen in low earth orbit.
Ah that makes sense! No air means reduced modes for cooling!
I believe that the coating is called AZ-93 and is made by AZ Technology. You can read about in AZ-93 White Thermal Control, Electrically Conductive Paint / Coating. According to that page, the paint only allows 13-17% of the solar radiation hitting it to be absorbed. It also emits 89-93% of the internal heat generated by whatever it is painted on. it also degrades very little over time. In one example, after 5.8 years in orbit the material's performance showed very little degradation.
Materials like this are one of the reasons space travel is so cool and so important for encouraging innovation for more terrestrial applications.
No argument from me there! Space and the technology that we need to develop to survive there is one of the most interesting things around! The spin offs that we get and the knowledge that we acquire can be applied into the most unusual and unexpected situations!
I'm not sure. I'll have to ask my neighbor the next time I see him. Thanks for stopping by.