Watchlords

bbattle wrote: ↑

January 21st 2023, 4:43pm

Everything that goes up in space, at least from the US side, is tested to see how it fares in outer space with the extreme heat, extreme cold, the extremely corrosive atomic oxygen layer, cosmic radiation, etc. There's a group at NASA that collects are preps samples of all these materials and they send them up in panels to be placed on the outside of the space station.

The vacuum can cause materials to 'outgas' and contaminate optics, mess up electronic boards, corrode stuff, etc. Materials can also decompose, causing more problems. A lot of testing is done here on Earth but final testing is done up in space. They used to send modules up in the space shuttle that were covered with hundreds of samples. The module would orbit the earth for a while then the shuttle would retrieve it. Now they use the space station.

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/ne ... MISSE.html





Some of these materials spend years up in space. NASA quickly discovered that the 'hook and loop' fasteners (Velcro) for the thermal blankets quickly disintegrated when exposed to ultraviolent radiation in space.

I'm sure all of the materials found in today's watches have been sent up into space by now except for the flame fusion dials and über-sekrit cables found on the higher quality Invecters.

I was recently asked if my group had any materials we wanted to send up on the next MISSE test. I should have donated my green dial Timex Marlin. Pretty sure that leather strap would not have fared well.