Overview

Particulate contaminants can be hazardous to spacecraft in a number of ways including failure of precision mechanisms, light absorption and scattering, points of high local electric field and associated electrostatic discharge, and noise on electrical contacts. It is therefore important to control measure and verify the particulate contamination levels on spacecraft systems and the environments in which they reside, in order that an assessment can be made on any hazards that may be present as a result of such contamination. The objective of this standard is to ensure that the particle monitoring of spacecraft systems and cleanrooms utilised in the production of such systems, is carried out in an appropriate manner, and is controlled both in terms of the precision of the measurements and the reproducibility of such measurements. This standard defines the requirements and guidelines for the measurement of particulate contamination on the surfaces of spacecraft systems and those of the cleanrooms or other cleanliness controlled areas in which they reside. This includes the measurement of particulate contamination that is present on the spacecraft or cleanroom surfaces via the use of representative witness samples placed in the vicinity of the spacecraft hardware, the direct measurement of particulate contamination levels on surfaces of spacecraft hardware from the direct surface transfer to adhesive tape-lift samples and particulate contaminant levels within fluids used for the cleaning or rinsing of such spacecraft system components and cleanroom surfaces. This standard also defines the methods to be used for the visual inspection of spacecraft system hardware for particulate contamination. The measurement of airborne particulate contamination is not covered in this standard and ISO 14644 "Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments" is applicable in this case. This standard does not cover particulate contamination monitoring for spacecraft propulsion hardware which is covered in ECSS-E-ST-35-06. This standard may be tailored for the specific characteristic and constraints of a space project in conformance with ECSS-S-ST-00. This document (EN 16603-70-50:2015) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/CLC/TC 5 "Space", the secretariat of which is held by DIN (Germany). This document has been developed to specifically cover space systems and therefore has precedence over any European Standard since it covers the same scope but with a wider domain of applicability (for example aerospace). The responsible German body is Working Committee NA 131-10-01 AA "Interoperabilität von Informations-, Kommunikations- und Navigationssystemen" ("Interoperability of information, communication and navigation systems") of the Aerospace Standards Committee (NL) at DIN.

Document: references other documents

Responsible national committee

NA 131-06-01 AA - Space  

Responsible european committee

CEN/CLC/JTC 5 - Space