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Preface

MEMS and Microstructures in Aerospace Applications is written from a program-
matic requirements perspective. MEMS is an interdisciplinary field requiring
knowledge in electronics, micromechanisms, processing, physics, fluidics, pack-
aging, and materials, just to name a few of the skills. As a corollary, space missions
require an even broader range of disciplines. It is for this broad group and especially
for the system engineer that this book is written. The material is designed for the
systems engineer, flight assurance manager, project lead, technologist, program
management, subsystem leads and others, including the scientist searching for
new instrumentation capabilities, as a practical guide to MEMS in aerospace
applications. The objective of this book is to provide the reader with enough
background and specific information to envision and support the insertion of
MEMS in future flight missions. In order to nurture the vision of using MEMS in
microspacecraft — or even in spacecraft — we try to give an overview of some of
the applications of MEMS in space to date, as well as the different applications
which have been developed so far to support space missions. Most of these
applications are at low-technology readiness levels, and the expected next step is
to develop space qualified hardware. However, the field is still lacking a heritage
database to solicit prescriptive requirements for the next generation of MEMS
demonstrations. (Some may argue that that is a benefit.) The second objective of
this book is to provide guidelines and materials for the end user to draw upon to
integrate and qualify MEMS devices and instruments for future space missions.

© 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC