Spacecraft charging - An update

Garrett, Henry; Whittlesey, Albert C.

doi:10.2514/6.1996-143

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…However, the differential charging of the largest surfaces relative to each other may take from seconds to hours [e.g., Koskinen et al , ]. Dielectric materials used in spacecraft have typical time constants of 10–10 5 s [ Garrett and Whittlesey , ]. The delay in the anomaly after Galaxy 15 exited eclipse favors internal charging, or deep dielectric charging, where charge accumulation over a period of time can induce an ESD.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Space weather conditions during the Galaxy 15 spacecraft anomaly

et al. 2015

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On 5 April 2010, the Galaxy 15 spacecraft, orbiting at geosynchronous altitudes, experienced an anomaly near local midnight when it stopped responding to any ground commands. The anomaly has been reported as due to a lockup of the field-programmable gate array within the spacecraft baseband communications unit during an onboard electrostatic discharge (ESD). This study evaluates the space weather conditions at the time of the Galaxy 15 anomaly. The study also compares the plasma and geomagnetic environments around the anomaly to space weather observations over the operational lifetime of Galaxy 15 up to the anomaly time. On 5 April, the Galaxy 15 spacecraft encountered severe plasma conditions while it was in eclipse and during the subsequent anomaly interval. These conditions included a massive magnetic field dipolarization that injected energetic particles from the magnetotail during a substorm observed by GOES and Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms satellites. Galaxy 15 was located at a near-optimum position and local time to experience the full impact of the injected energetic particles. During the largest previous storm experienced by Galaxy 15 in December 2006, evidence suggests that it would not have been exposed to the same level of space weather as on 5 April 2010. Hence, while Galaxy 15 was traversing the nightside on 5 April, it likely experienced, for a short period, the most severe local plasma conditions it had encountered since launch. The most likely contributions to the ESD were interactions of the spacecraft with substorm-injected energetic particles facilitating spacecraft surface charging and deep dielectric charging.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Space weather conditions during the Galaxy 15 spacecraft anomaly

et al. 2015

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“…The importance of the sheath and wake effects for in‐situ measurements has been recognized early, and a number of studies were carried out to address this problem with increasingly more realistic models and simulations (Wang & Hastings, ; Scime et al, ; Torkar et al, ; Engwall et al, ; Svenes & Trøim, ; Garrett & Whittlesey, ; Anderson, ; Marchand et al, ; Miyake & Usui, ; Marchand & Lira, ; Capon et al, ). Due to the computational complexity, only recently, the effects of the magnetic field on the wake and spacecraft charging have been studied in self‐consistent simulations (Marchand, ; Darian et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electron Wing‐Like Structures Formed at a Negatively Charged Spacecraft Moving in a Magnetized Plasma

et al. 2020

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Spacecraft‐plasma interactions are studied with self‐consistent numerical simulations of magnetized plasmas, where electrons are strongly magnetized whereas ions are weakly magnetized. It is found that for a spacecraft in such a magnetized plasma corresponding to a low Earth orbit, electrons can be reflected from a negatively charged spacecraft and then guided by geomagnetic field lines. The reflected electrons can leave a sharp trail like wings if the spacecraft size is greater than an average electron gyroradius of the environment. Such an electron wing‐like structure is associated with propagating Langmuir waves. This results in nontrivial asymmetric electrostatic potentials close to the spacecraft and even farther than the Debye screening distance. The convective electric field also gives rise to a differential potential of the spacecraft with respect to the plasma, resulting in yet another asymmetry in the plasma dynamics and the potential distribution around the spacecraft. These asymmetries in the plasma dynamics can significantly influence in‐situ measurements of space plasma. The results show a good qualitative agreement with actual measurements by a satellite in the polar regions.

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“…The 80–100 km mesospheric altitude range presents a different surface charging environment than the one present at satellite orbital altitudes, which have been extensively studied [ Garrett and Whittlesey , 2000; Hastings and Garrett , 1996]. One difference is manifested by the enormous amount of meteoric ablation that condenses into dust particles and is suspended in the Earth's mesosphere between 80 and 100 km.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observations of triboelectric charging effects on Langmuir‐type probes in dusty plasma

Barjatya¹,

Swenson²

2006

J. Geophys. Res.

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Investigation of Earth's mesosphere using sounding rockets equipped with a myriad of instruments has been a highly active field in the last 2 decades. This paper presents data from three separate instruments: an RF impedance probe, a DC fixed bias Langmuir probe, and an electric field probe, that were flown on a mesospheric sounding rocket flight investigating the presence of charged dust within and/or around a sporadic metal layer. The combined data set indicates a case of payload surface charging, the causes of which are investigated within this paper. A generic circuit model is developed to analyze payload charging and behavior of Langmuir‐type instruments. The application of this model to the rocket payload indicates that the anomalous charging event was an outcome of triboelectrification of the payload surface from neutral dust particles present in the Earth's mesosphere. These results suggest caution in interpreting observations from the Langmuir class of instrumentation within dusty environments.

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Spacecraft charging - An update

Cited by 12 publications

References 73 publications

Space weather conditions during the Galaxy 15 spacecraft anomaly

Space weather conditions during the Galaxy 15 spacecraft anomaly

Electron Wing‐Like Structures Formed at a Negatively Charged Spacecraft Moving in a Magnetized Plasma

Observations of triboelectric charging effects on Langmuir‐type probes in dusty plasma

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