Charging Behavior of Space-Used Adhesives at Low Temperature in Geostationary Orbit

Abstract

This paper presents experimental results carried out on coverglasses and silicone adhesive/coverglasses systems for the analysis of their charging behavior at low temperatures. These samples have been tested under monoenergetic and geostationary-like spectrum electron flux at different operating temperatures, ranging from 20 C down to 90 C. It has been demonstrated that adhesive strongly steers the charging potential of these systems due to the high decrease of their electric conductivity with the applied temperature. Radiation-induced conductivity, initiated by the high energy electron flux, tends to noticeably decrease with temperature for the adhesive, as opposed to coverglasses, which do not present any strong variation of their radiation-induced conductivity with the temperature. This study demonstrates that using silicone adhesive on components liable to get cooled down in geostationary orbit presents a significant risk of high charging potentials and consequent electrical discharges.