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The International Space Station is the new home of the STORM instrument designed by UK students

The Southampton Transient Oxygen and Radiation Monitor (STORM) instrument was placed on the International Space Station where it will be used in an experiment called MEDET (Materials Exposure and Degradation Experiment on EuTEF). The experiment aims to measure how the hostile space environment affects materials used to construct spacecraft.

Most of the design and development work was carried out by two Engineering Sciences research students at Southampton University, Duncan Goulty and Carl White, both of whom have now been awarded their PhDs. Several undergraduate students also took part in the development of STORM by carrying out project work as part of their studies.

Duncan Goulty said: “Once operational, STORM will send back data at regular intervals so that the changes in the atomic oxygen and X-ray/UV levels can be monitored over time. After two or three years of exposure to the space environment, the experiment will be returned to Earth for analysis and interpretation by the Southampton researchers, who will determine the effect of the exposure on the materials and instruments contained on board.”

These materials, particularly polymers which are often used to form insulation blankets on spacecraft for example, suffer damage from the combined effects of solar radiation, micrometeroid and space debris impact and from exposure to atomic oxygen, which is the primary constituent of the Earth's residual atmosphere in low Earth orbit. STORM will monitor the concentration of atomic oxygen (AO) and the flux of solar X-ray and ultra-violet radiation.

Design work on the instrument, which is a cube measuring approximately 15 centimetres on each side with a mass of approximately 1 kilogram, began in 2001 with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.