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

Author

Allre, D.B. ; Benson, J.D. ; Cohen, H.A. ; Rait, W.J. ; Burt, D.A. ; Katz, I. ; Jongeward, G. ; Antoniades, J. ; Alport, M. ; Boyd, D. ; Nunnally, W.C. ; Dillo, W. ; Pickett, J. ; Torbert, R.B.

Author_Institution

Defense Nucl. Agency, Alexandria, VA, USA

Volume

35

Issue

6

fYear

1988

fDate

12/1/1988 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1386

Lastpage

1393

Abstract

The SPEAR-1 rocket payload, flown on December 13, 1987, exposed biased conducting spheres at potentials of tens of kV to the ambient space environment at altitudes as high as 370 km (apogee) in the night-time ionosphere. Small chamber tests of the mock-up demonstrated the conditions for breakdown caused by sphere bias, magnetic field, chamber size, and secondary emissive properties of the chamber wall. In flight the failure to expose the payload´s plasma contactor to the ionosphere caused a bipolar operation with interacting sheaths from both the payload body and the biased conducting spheres. During sphere biasing no breakdowns occurred above 100 km, and the plasma sheath controlling the flow of currents from the ionosphere behaved as a linear resistance with a value in the 100s of kilo-ohms

Keywords

aerospace test facilities; ionosphere; space vehicles; 0 to 370 km; SPEAR-1 experiment; SPEAR-1 rocket payload; ambient space environment; biased conducting spheres; chamber size; chamber tests; conditions for breakdown; high voltage effects; magnetic field; night-time ionosphere; plasma sheath; secondary emissive properties; space charging; sphere bias; Electric breakdown; Ionosphere; Magnetic fields; Magnetic properties; Payloads; Plasma sheaths; Rockets; Space charge; Testing; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.25469

Filename

25469