Tiny houses: Planetary protection-focused materials selection for spaceflight hardware surfaces

Abstract

When developing spaceflight hardware, an engineering team is faced with a broad range of materials selections for design trade studies. Typical trade studies hone in on materials selection with thermal or mechanical environmental requirements as design selection drivers. With the growing interest in spaceflight hardware development for life-detection and restricted sample return missions, materials selection processes during the design phase will need to factor in the impact that materials selection will have on the growth of terrestrial microbes in the pre- and post-launch environment. From a planetary protection point of view, during the design and pre-fabrication processes, materials choices (composition, termination, finish) can result in surfaces that have the potential to support, sustain, or senesce microbes. We evaluate known surface properties of common spaceflight materials choices in the context of planetary protection considerations for future sample return and life-detection missions.