Reply To: Great News!

[zapkitty]

ikanreed wrote:
Tin whiskers come from the sodder used to finish circuitry.

Yes, it is a known issue for electronics, including spacecraft electronics.

And it seems certain that engineering an FF unit for spacecraft use will turn up its own surprises.

But metal whiskers would not to seem to be able to do well in an FF chamber. These are crystalline metal structures thinner than a human hair.

The FF equivalent would be beryllium whiskers or some other chamber material – and would any such even be whisker prone? – and the concept requires a fairly static environment for the whiskers to grow large enough to be a problem….

… and the interior of an operating FF chamber isn’t exactly a static environment 🙂

So I’d think that if even if there were any potential whisker problems in an FF chamber they would turn out to be as much of a problem for planetside units as for spaceborne units… if…