This publication presents the proceedings of ICPMSE-3, the third international conference on Protection of Materials and Structures from the Low Earth Orbit Space Environment, held in Toronto April 25-26, 1996. The conference was hosted and organized by Integrity Testing Laboratory Inc, (ITL), and held at the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), where ITL is located. Twenty industrial companies, seven wliversities and eight government agencies from Canada, USA, United Kingdom, France, Israel, Russia, Ukraine and the Netherlands were represented by over 55 participants indicating increasing international co-operation in this critical arena of protection of materials in space. Twenty-five speakers, world experts in their fields, delivered talks on a wide variety of topics on various aspects of material protection in space, Representatives from the Canadian, American, European and Israeli space agencies as well as from leading space research laboratories of major aerospace industries gathered at UTIAS to discuss the latest developments in the field of material and structure protection from the harsh space environment, These proceedings are organized into four sections: a) AONOV and Radiation Effects on Materials and Structures in the Leo Space Environment; b) Interaction of Matter with the LEO Environment; c) Large Scale Coating Process Developments for Protection in LEO; d) Synthesis and Modification of Materials and Surfaces for Protection in LEO, This is the third in our on-going series of bi-annual international space materials conferences wllich began in 1992 in Toronto. Jacob Kleiman, Integrity Testing Laboratory Inc.

The goals of the 10th International Space Conference on “Protection of Materials and Structures from Space Environment” ICPMSE-10J, since its inception in 1992, have been to facilitate exchanges between members of the various engineering and science disciplines involved in the development of space materials, including aspects of LEO, GEO and Deep Space environments, ground-based qualification, and in-flight experiments and lessons learned from operational vehicles that are closely interrelated to disciplines of the atmospheric sciences, solar-terrestrial interactions and space life sciences. The knowledge of environmental conditions on and around the Moon, Mars, Venus and the low Earth orbit as well as other possible candidates for landing such as asteroids have become an important issue, and protecting both hardware and human life from the effects of space environments has taken on a new meaning in light of the increased interest in space travel and colonization of other planets. And while many material experiments have been carried out on the ground and in open space in the last 50 years (LDEF, MEEP, SARE, MISSE, AOP, DSPSE, ESEM, EURECA, HST, MDIM, MIS, MPID, MPAC and SEED), many questions regarding the environmental impact of space on materials remain either poorly understood or unanswered. The coming generations of scientists will have to continue this work and tackle new challenges, continuing to build the level of confidence humans will need to continue the colonization of space. It is hoped that the proceedings of the ICPMSE-10J presented in this book will constitute a small contribution to doing so.

This publication presents the proceedings of ICPMSE-6, the sixth international conference on Protection of Materials and Structures from Space Environment, held in Toronto May 1-3, 2002. The ICPMSE series of meetings became an important part of the LEO space community since it was started in 1991. Since then, the meeting has grown steadily, attracting a large number of engineers, researchers, managers, and scientists from industrial companies, scientific institutions and government agencies in Canada, U. S. A. , Asia, and Europe, thus becoming a true international event. This year’s meeting is gaining even stronger importance with the resumption of the ISS and other space projects in LEO, GEO and Deep Space. To reflect on these activities, the topics in the program have been extended to include protection of materials in GEO and Deep Space. The combination of a broad selection of technical and scientific topics addressed by internationally known speakers with the charm of Toronto and the hospitality of the organizers brings participants back year after year. The conference was hosted and organized by Integrity Testing Laboratory Inc. (ITL), and held at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS). The meeting was sponsored by the Materials and Manufacturing Ontario (MMO) and the CRESTech, two Ontario Centres of Excellence; Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR/NL); MD Robotics; EMS Technologies; The Integrity Testing Laboratory (ITL); and the UTIAS.

The proceedings published in this book document and foster the goals of the 11th International Space Conference on “Protection of Materials and Structures from Space Environment” ICPMSE-11 to facilitate exchanges between members of the various engineering and science disciplines involved in the development of space materials. Contributions cover aspects of interaction with space environment of LEO, GEO, Deep Space, Planetary environments, ground-based qualification and in-flight experiments, as well as lessons learned from operational vehicles that are closely interrelated to disciplines of atmospheric sciences, solar-terrestrial interactions and space life sciences.

The effects of various space environment factors like atomic oxygen, vacuum ultraviolet radiation, charging, micrometeoroids, meteoroid showers, etc. on materials and structures in various orbits are discussed. In addition the ways to prevent these effects or reduce them through protection by coatings or modification of affected surfaces are considered in the book. The discussions on development of predictive models of material erosion that will allow the materials engineers and designers of future spacecraft to evaluate materials' behaviour is continued from the past meetings.

The goals of the 10th International Space Conference on “Protection of Materials and Structures from Space Environment” ICPMSE-10J, since its inception in 1992, have been to facilitate exchanges between members of the various engineering and science disciplines involved in the development of space materials, including aspects of LEO, GEO and Deep Space environments, ground-based qualification, and in-flight experiments and lessons learned from operational vehicles that are closely interrelated to disciplines of the atmospheric sciences, solar-terrestrial interactions and space life sciences. The knowledge of environmental conditions on and around the Moon, Mars, Venus and the low Earth orbit as well as other possible candidates for landing such as asteroids have become an important issue, and protecting both hardware and human life from the effects of space environments has taken on a new meaning in light of the increased interest in space travel and colonization of other planets. And while many material experiments have been carried out on the ground and in open space in the last 50 years (LDEF, MEEP, SARE, MISSE, AOP, DSPSE, ESEM, EURECA, HST, MDIM, MIS, MPID, MPAC and SEED), many questions regarding the environmental impact of space on materials remain either poorly understood or unanswered. The coming generations of scientists will have to continue this work and tackle new challenges, continuing to build the level of confidence humans will need to continue the colonization of space. It is hoped that the proceedings of the ICPMSE-10J presented in this book will constitute a small contribution to doing so.

The conference proceedings are discussing the latest developments in the area of the effects of the space environment on materials and structures and the ways to prevent and/or reduce them. The effects of various space environment factors like atomic oxygen, vacuum ultraviolet radiation, charging, micrometeoroids, meteoroid showers, etc. on materials and structures in various space conditions are discussed. In addition the ways to prevent these effects or reduce them through protection by coatings or modification of affected surfaces are considered in the book. The discussions on development of predictive models of material erosion that will allow the materials engineers and designers of future spacecraft to evaluate materials' behavior is continued from the past meetings.