Ground-based experiment of electric breakdown of spacecraft insulator surface in ambient plasma environment
| Autor: | Tahara, Hirokazu, Masuyama, Takahisa, Horikawa, Koji |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2005 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | 宇宙航空研究開発機構特別資料 = JAXA Special Publication: 9th Spacecraft Charging Technology Conference. :58-64 |
| ISSN: | 1349-113X |
| Popis: | In the future, LEO spacecraft will be larger and higher powered. Because of the balance of leakage currents through ambient space plasma, their main conductive body will have a higher negative potential without plasma contactor operation. When spacecraft operate with a higher voltage, more intensive arcing is suspected to occur on the surface. In this study, ground-based experiment was carried out to understand the arcing phenomenon and to examine influences of ambient space plasma on the arcing process. Simulating plasmas were generated by electron cyclotron resonance discharge. When arcing occurred on negatively-biased Anodized Aluminum Sample (AAS) plates in the plasma environment, the time variations in arc current and bias voltage were measured. Arc spot diameter was also measured. The single arcing characteristics showed that both the peak arc current and the total charge emitted by arcing increased with initial charging voltage and neutral particle number density. The diameter of arc spots increased with initial charging voltage although it was almost constant regardless of neutral particle density. The repetitive arcing characteristics showed that the arc rate gradually increased with arcing number. Lots of overlapping arc spot were observed after 1,000 arcings, and its number increased with arcing number. Accordingly, arc tends to occur at a same location as increasing arcing number. Influences of initial charging energy on arcing characteristics were also examined by widely changing capacitance and initial charging voltage. The arc spot diameter widely increased with initial charging energy, and the fitting line could be evaluated. Accordingly, high voltage operation of LEO spacecraft might bring drastic degradation of AAS by arcing, depending on ambient plasma conditions and spacecraft capacitance. 資料番号: AA0049206007 レポート番号: JAXA-SP-05-001E |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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