The contamination environment at the Mir Space Station as measured during the EuroMir '95 mission

A flight instrument attached to the exterior of the Mir Space Station as part of a European Space Agency (ESA) programme has provided a better understanding of the effects of the space environment on materials. The instrument was designed to measure, real time, the impacts and trajectory of hypervelocity particles, the atomic oxygen flux and any contamination deposition and subsequent effects during the course of the mission. The ESA mission, EuroMir '95, began in September 1995 and was completed in March 1996. Active data from the Quartz Crystal Microbalances confirm the existence of a severe molecular contamination environment. The mission also allowed for an EVA which returned passive materials to earth for subsequent laboratory analyses. These data are considered quite germane due to the similarity in orbital altitude and inclination of the Mir and International Space Stations.