SFU (Space Flyer Unit), the retrievable space platform developed in Japan, was launched by H-II-3 rocket and put into a circular orbit of 480km in March 1995. After experiments of various kinds, it was retrieved by STS-72 in January 1996. SFU carried an environmental diagnostic package that contains two pressure gauges and a mass spectrometer to measure the gas density and composition surrounding the SFU. The surface gas environment of SFU was measured for more than three months. It was found that the gas environment was primarily controlled by surface outgassing effect and was strongly influenced by spacecraft activities. The knowledge obtained in this study will be used to predict the gas environment surrounding large spacecraft in a long term.
Space Flyer Unit (SFU) で計測されたガス環境
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