The proceedings published in this book document and foster the goals of the 11th International Space Conference on “Protection of Materials and Structures from Space Environment” ICPMSE-11 to facilitate exchanges between members of the various engineering and science disciplines involved in the development of space materials. Contributions cover aspects of interaction with space environment of LEO, GEO, Deep Space, Planetary environments, ground-based qualification and in-flight experiments, as well as lessons learned from operational vehicles that are closely interrelated to disciplines of atmospheric sciences, solar-terrestrial interactions and space life sciences.

Space flight is a comprehensive and innovative part of technology. It encompasses many fields of technology. This monograph presents a cross section of the total field of expertise that is called "space flight". It provides an optimal reference with insight into the design, construction and analysis aspects of spacecraft. The emphasis of this book is put on unmanned space flight, particularly on the construction of spacecraft rather than the construction of launch vehicles.