Review of synergistic environmental interactions: Guidelines for new testing approaches on future solar arrays

The difficulties involved in accurately reproducing space environment conditions in simulation tests are discussed. Most existing test facilities test the effect of a single space environment component. The need for multifactor environment simulation facilities in order to effectively understand solar array failures that have occurred in orbit is stressed. Since no such multifactor test facilities are available, a review is presented of already available one component effect information. An extrapolation of this data towards a synergistic effects analysis is outlined.