Space crafts engineering is one of the emerging industries after the fourth industrial revolution, growing day by day. The growth results in increasing demands in high-performance space crafts, calling for a whole new materials suitable for specific objectives in space crafts. Materials for space crafts should have great mechanical and thermal properties along with corrosion resistance, and be lightweighted for their cost-efficiency. Therefore, it is crucial to have a detailed understanding of common space craft materials’ microstructure, chemistry, and how their chemical composition and structures affect the properties. Our lab utilizes various characterization techniques such as XRD, SEM, TEM, and APT from bulk to atomic scale to determine critical factors in materials properties and suggests efficient strategies in designing high-performance new materials for space crafts.

The AIG is currently working on materials characterization and design for low earth orbital (LEO) satellites, a.k.a. DREAM-LEO project. Most of satellites are launched within low earth orbit (100~2000km) to maximize economical and communicational efficiency. In LEO environment, oxygens are photo-dissociated into atomic oxygens (AOs) that are highly reactive enough to cause surface oxidation, erosion, corrosion and property degradation in LEO materials. In DREAM-LEO project, our focus is on understanding materials degradation mechanism caused by AOs within LEO environment and designing optimal composite material for shielding AOs.