A new synthetic hydrocarbon liquid lubricant for space applications

Synthetic hydrocarbon liquid lubricants (based on polyalphaolefins) have been developed for use in space applications. These materials have been fully characterized and their physical properties reported which include: kinematic and absolute viscosity, viscosity index, vapor pressure, evaporation, specific gravity, pour point, coefficient of thermal expansion, refractive index, and flow activation energy. In addition, tribological properties under ultrahigh vacuum conditions have been determined. These include: lubricated lifetimes using a spiral orbit tribometer (SOT) and vacuum four-ball wear rates. These values are compared to existing state-of-the-art space lubricants.