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BY KURT KESSEL ITB INC. AND NASA A collaboration develops between NASA and the European Space Agency. Replacing Hex Chrome for Aerospace Applications 14 JUNE 2017 — PFonline.com NASA maintains a Principal Center for Technology Evaluation for Environmental Risk Mitigation (TEERM) that serves as an integration activity for NASA, helping to improve the agency's ability to adopt new environmental or energy technologies. TEERM also looks for technologies that benefit the envi- ronment and enhance the resilience of NASA's infrastructure. NASA is working in close collaboration with other federal and state authorities to assess and mitigate the risk it faces in terms of threats, vulnerabilities and consequences. One goal of NASA and TEERM is to increase international collaboration, where NASA can benefit from working with international organizations, particularly the European Space Agency (ESA). NASA and ESA face similar challenges and risks, and collaboration with ESA offers many advantages. Both agencies process flight hardware, maintain ground- based facilities and face increasingly stringent environmental regulations that pose cost, schedule and technical risks to their missions. Collaboration offers the advantage of sharing ABOVE: The U.S. flag is in view on NASA's Orion spacecraft inside the Launch Abort System Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo courtesy of NASA. resources and expertise and avoiding duplication of effort in identifying and evaluating potential solutions. NASA and ESA recently signed an agreement that allows both agencies to work together through an exchange of information and technical data on topics of common interest in the field of space transportation. TEERM has begun a collaborative effort with ESA evaluating alternatives to hexavalent chromium-containing coatings for aerospace applications. TEERM works closely with the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Corrosion Technology Laboratory (CTL) on this project. Similarly, ESA works with the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) located in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Hexavalent Chromium in Coatings Aluminum is the major manufacturing material of structures and components in the space flight arena. The processing and maintenance of this material to reduce degradation and corro- sion is of prime importance to NASA and ESA. Hexavalent chromium (hex chrome or Cr 6 ) is widely used in coating systems for its self-healing and corrosion-resistant prop- erties. Chromated coatings also play a critical role in enhancing the adhesion of the primer coating to the substrate. AEROSPACE