Low Friction... in Space!

Everybody loves low friction right? Without it cars wouldn't run well, machinery would come to a grinding halt, and men like this wouldn't have any fun at all.

In fact, almost everything we know and love wouldn't work correctly if low friction lubricants like oil hadn't been invented. It's a huge industry here on earth.

But what about in space? We don't want friction up there do we?

We certainly don't. But conventional lubricants won't work up there because of the low-gravity and extreme temperature differences encountered. None of the oil would stay where it needs to be, and it would gel up like strawberry jelly that's been sitting out too long. Neither of which are any good for the cause of reducing friction.

I recently had an opportunity to interview the owner of a high-tech coating company, Tribologix. They do very low friction coatings that are ingrained into the metal of the parts that have been coated. This makes for a great low friction surface that won't gum up, squeeze out of the part, or wear away over time. These coatings have been tested on the ISS, and the gears on the mars rover have been coated like this. There hasn't really been much research on lubrication and friction in space because, well, you have to test in space. The lubrication business has just begun to start testing in space to find better alternatives to the relatively poor space lubricants we have now.

A tribometer (friction tester) going to the ISS. Source

With more testing and development, making parts move in space will become easier and easier, and extremely costly failures like this won't happen nearly as much.

-Colin Downs