Development and Flight Experiment of a Space QCM in Small Demonstration Satellite-4

Abstract

The Small Demonstration Satellite-4 (SDS-4) of JAXA launched on May 18, 2012 (JST) is equipped with a Japan's first quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) for spacecraft surface contamination monitoring. The QCM was installed on one of the satellite outer surface and occasionally observed gradual frequency decrease (=contamination) under the ground clean room environment for about a year. The QCM frequencies just before and after the launch by the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 21 (H-IIA F21) were almost the same, which indicated good cleanness inside the H-IIA's payload fairing. The frequency rapidly increased to the initial level during the first week after the launch probably due to removal or erosion of contaminants on the crystal surface by attack of atoms and ions in the orbit at an altitude of about 700 km. Contamination was never dominant during seventeen months of the space operation. Long term trend of the QCM frequency seems to be affected by the upper atmosphere density changing with the F10.7 solar radio flux.