The SPEAR-1 experiment: high voltage effects on space charging in the ionosphere

Allred, D.B.; Benson, J. D.; Cohen, H. A.; Raitt, W. J.; Burt, David A.; Katz, Ira; Jongeward, G. A.; Antoniades, J. A.; Alport, M. J.; Boyd, D. A.; Nunnally, W.C.; Dillon, W.E.; Pickett, J. S.; Torbert, R. B.

doi:10.1109/23.25469

Cited by 33 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…The SPEAR-1 ACS firings had no noticeable effect on the pressure measured by the neutral pressure gauge on that flight. 1 This difference from SPEAR-3 implies that the effect of gas releases on a pressure measurement depends greatly on the location and orientation of the gauge. The pressure gauge flown on SPEAR-1 was located in the nose cone of the rocket about 300 cm from the ACS nozzles with its aperture pointed 180 deg from the direction to the nozzles.…”

Section: Discussion and Comparison With Previous Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The stated purpose of the SPEAR program was to determine the feasibility of operating high-voltage and high-current systems in space by using theoretical studies, computer modeling, and ground-based vacuum chamber experiments in conjunction with sounding rockets carrying relevant experiments into the low Earth orbit space environment. 1 ' 2 The third rocket in the series, SPEAR-3, was successfully launched on the night of March 15,1993, from Wallops Island, Virginia. It reached an apogee of 289 km during its nearly 9-min flight over the Atlantic Ocean.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Payload environment and gas release effects on sounding rocket neutral pressure measurements

Pickett¹,

Morgan²,

Merlino³

et al. 1996

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets

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The Space Physics Experiments Aboard Rockets-3 sounding rocket carried a payload that performed active experiments to diagnose the physical mechanisms and test the effectiveness of several grounding schemes, to study high-voltage bias effects on the performance of solar cells, and to monitor the undisturbed plasma and neutral gas environment of the payload. As a part of that payload, the neutral pressure gauge obtained measurements of the pressure surrounding the payload both during and between the various active experiments. Neutral pressure results show a pressure elevated by as much as two orders of magnitude over atmospheric model-derived pressures for the entire flight. Neutral pressure measurements indicate that gas released during neutral gas (argon) releases, which was one of the mechanisms for grounding the payload, and attitude control system thruster firings (nitrogen) may be displacing the ambient gas, at least from the vantage point of the neutral pressure gauge. The prerelease ambient pressure appears to be the determining factor for whether a gas release causes an increase or decrease in the ambient pressure. Also, the decay time associated with these gas releases, or the time it takes for the measured pressure to return to ambient, is on the order of a few tenths to a few hundredths of a second once the gas valves are shut.

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Section: Discussion and Comparison With Previous Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Payload environment and gas release effects on sounding rocket neutral pressure measurements

Pickett¹,

Morgan²,

Merlino³

et al. 1996

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets

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“…0094-8534 / 91 / 91GL-0114953.00 the recent SPEAR I [Allred et al, 1988] and CI-IARGE-2 [Myers et al, 1990] rocket experiments. In this situation, effects of ion drift on the electrode sheath potential are expected to be relatively unimportant, because the ions are the repelled particle species.…”

Section: Paper Number 91gl01149mentioning

confidence: 99%

Chaotic particle motion in Coulomb electric and uniform magnetic fields

Sonmor¹,

Laframboise²

1991

Geophysical Research Letters

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In an attractive Coulomb electric field and a uniform magnetic field B, some particle orbits originating at infinite distance undergo many reflections, repeatedly approaching the Coulomb centre. The chaotic nature of these orbits is discussed and illustrated by numerical calculations. The divergence of neighbouring trajectories is shown to occur mostly in discrete jumps when they pass near the Coulomb centre. The appearance of chaotic behaviour in this simplified situation suggests that it will also occur when space‐charge effects significantly perturb the potential distribution around a current‐collecting electrode in a space magnetoplasma.

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“…1,2 Space experiments by the SPEAR projects have been explored to characterize the interaction of the space environment with exposed high voltage systems. 3 The experiments demonstrated the basic ability of the space vacuum to be used as an electrical insulator. However, the pressure in the vicinity of the spacecraft was measured at ∼10 −3 Pa as compared to the ambient pressure of ∼10 −6 Pa at the peak altitude of the rocket (370 km).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High voltage breakdown induced by outgassing of space materials

et al. 2015

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Increasing demand for higher voltage and power levels aboard spacecrafts requires space vacuum as insulator. A concerned issue for this is whether the outgassing of dielectric materials profusely used in spacecrafts can induce breakdown, and what, if it occurs, the mechanism and characteristics are. In this paper, low pressure breakdown induced by outgassing was investigated experimentally. It’s found that vacuum breakdown is significantly facilitated by the outgassing of dielectric materials. Measurements of Paschen’s curves for typical outgassing samples show that significant decrease of breakdown voltage occurs in high vacuum region due to increase of local pressure from outgassed products. Another important mechanism that affects the breakdown voltage is the electrode surface contamination by the outgassed components. Primary models with these mechanisms taken into account are described and the model calculations agree well with the measurements. Both experimental findings and theoretical analysis indicate that outgassing of space materials is a potentially important threat to high voltage systems with vacuum as insulation.

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The SPEAR-1 experiment: high voltage effects on space charging in the ionosphere

Cited by 33 publications

References 1 publication

Payload environment and gas release effects on sounding rocket neutral pressure measurements

Payload environment and gas release effects on sounding rocket neutral pressure measurements

Chaotic particle motion in Coulomb electric and uniform magnetic fields

High voltage breakdown induced by outgassing of space materials

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