Simulation Of The Low Earth Orbit For The Study Of Pulsed Insulator Flashover and Degradation

A facility has been designed and constructed to analyze the phenomena associated with high voltage surface flashover of insulators in the low earth orbit environment. The facility incorporates a 10/sup -4/ Torr background vacuum, a low energy plasma, and ultraviolet radiation to simulate the effects of insulator and electrode charging, which are believed to be the main causes of most exterior spacecraft surface flashover problems. Experiments are being conducted to test the validity of models which extend laboratory vacuum-based design principles to include the Earth´s upper atmosphere environment. The design and performance of the various sub-systems, including a Marx generator, plasma source, diagnostics, and data acquisition, are discussed in this paper. In addition, the facility´s capabilities are presented, with a summary of some of the results generated to date, and an outline of the topics to be investigated in the near future.