A review of plasma interactions with spacecraft in low Earth orbit

Abstract

All spacecraft interact in some manner with the plasma environment in space, either the natural environment or a self‐induced environment. Early work on plasma spacecraft interactions focused on geosynchronous altitudes where the primary effect is spacecraft charging from the non‐Maxwellian high‐energy plasma environment. This work has been extensively reviewed. In the last several years, there have been a number of measurements in low Earth orbit (LEO) which, when combined with models, have revealed a rich variety of plasma interaction phenomena at these low altitudes. These are reviewed in this work. These include charging on polar orbits, ram and wake flows, use of high‐voltage power systems in space, arcing on high‐voltage solar arrays, noise generation in self induced plasma clouds around large, active spacecraft such as the shuttle, anomalous ionization of emitted neutral gases, use of electrodynamic tethers and plasma contactors and phenomena associated with the use of electrically propelled rockets.

pdFOAM: A PIC-DSMC code for near-Earth plasma-body interactions

“…The self-consistent charging of a body immersed in plasma is a complex problem in plasma physics [25,26,28]. Self-consistent charging requires accurate replication of both kinetic and boundary phenomena to reproduce the electron and ion current balance needed to achieve a dynamic equilibrium at floating potential φ B .…”

“…Figure 11 lists particle and field boundary conditions, while case specific boundary conditions are described in the appropriate sections. Mesh density is based on the mean plasma conditions experienced by the Earth Observation System (EOS) during a period of mean sunspot activity [28]; these conditions are listed in more detail in Section 4.3.…”

High‐voltage interactions in plasma wakes: Results from the charging hazards and wake studies (CHAWS) flight experiments

“…[Hastings, 1995].) Generally, in the laboratory the nearer a body is to the wake edge the more readily it collects current, although this is not universally true because of focusing effects in the wake.…”

“…Although no direct measurements of the electron density were made as part of the CHAWS flight experiment, it is reasonable to assume that within a factor of 2 the electron density /'/e • t/i and the electron temperature T e • Ti [Hastings, 1995] where the corresponding ion parameters are given in Table 1. Given these parameters or even assuming an enhanced electron temperature in the wake as has been observed by Samir and Wrenn [1972], the Langmuir probe could not have floated more than a fraction of a volt below the ambient plasma potential without shutting off the electron current required to support the voltage across the probe-to-chassis impedance.…”

“…During CHAWS II, out-of-plane orientations were performed intentionally and varied up to qb = 90 ø. No attempt was made to achieve a particular orientation versus the local magnetic field; because the ion gyroradius [Hastings, 1995] was assumed to be larger than the diameter of the WSF, magnetic field effects were assumed to not play a first-order role in charge collection behavior. The thruster firings necessary to accomplish these maneuvers could clearly be seen as an enhanced ion density on the ram side.…”