I picked simple iron and a low earth orbit because I thought that represented a worst case example for things rusting. It was KISS question.

If you had asked me, do things rust in space? I would have said no and laughed at you. But it seems I am wrong. Things do rust in space at least a bit.

I think iron might be quite a good base material for spaceships. There are a lot of iron ore rocks up there and it is easy to melt. I am sure it will not be pig iron but some sort of steel seems quite likely to me for making hulls at least at low tech levels.

On Sat, Jan 2, 2016 at 6:14 AM, Greg Chalik <mrg3105@gmail.com> wrote:

The question was about the utility of iron in building ships for space travel, not utility of iron in orbital satellites.
If you get the question wrong, your answer is likely to reflect this.
On 2 January 2016 at 15:49, Richard Aiken <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, Jan 1, 2016 at 11:32 PM, Greg Chalik <mrg3105@gmail.com> wrote:
In fact I recon the ice particles will penetrate quite deeply into simple iron even if they have no significant velocity of their own, but if they do, they will go deep.

Many thanks.

But I'll go with the answer below, if you don't mind:

On Fri, Jan 1, 2016 at 10:08 PM, Tim <xxxxxx@little-possums.net> wrote:
The good news is that almost all of the corrosion occurs on external
surfaces that face the direction of motion in some way. Those are
easily predicted for the design. Interior components are mostly
shielded since the satellite is moving very much faster than the
average speed of the atoms in the extremely rarefied gas.

<snip>

I do agree that the actual kilogram amount of corrosion is generally
very, very little though.

--
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident." Robert A. Heinlein
"A word to the wise ain't necessary -- it's the stupid ones that need the advice." - Bill Cosby
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Douglas E Knapp, MSAOM, LAc.