Intermec Inc. (Everett, Wash.) has announced a cooperative research effort with the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center to investigate new Automatic Identification Tracking (AIT) System technologies. New technologies to be developed will qualify machine-readable symbol markings and RFID devices for use on space-borne vehicles.
To aid in developing the new technologies, Intermec will evaluate markings that have been exposed to low earth orbit environments during the third and fourth Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) missions. Intermec also will prepare additional marked samples and soft and rigid RFID tags to be included in MISSE 6, scheduled for July.
The part identification markings and tags—which remain readable after exposure to the extreme levels of ultraviolet radiation, atomic oxygen, hard vacuum, and contamination in low earth orbit—will be evaluated and then certified for use on future space vehicles and added to NASA’s part identification requirements.
“Special identification markings for use with spacecraft will play an increasingly important role as we prepare more complex vehicles and systems to support the implementation of the Vision for Space Exploration,” said Fred Schramm, administrator, Internal Research and Development Program, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. “We have to make use of markings that have been properly tested to the demanding environments of space travel and support a wide variety of tasks.”
Source: Intermec
