Experiment study on electrostatic discharge of LEO high voltage solar array

Future spacecraft´s solar array is required for high power, long life and small attitude control pressure. High voltage solar array is an important development direction of solar array in the future. The electrostatic discharge will be caused by the interactions between the high voltage solar array and the plasma in the space environment in LEO. Thus, the threshold voltage of ignition discharge and secondary discharge of a high-voltage solar array needs to be determined. In the paper, the vacuum plasma environment in LEO orbit was simulated to study the threshold voltage of ignition discharge and the secondary discharge of high-voltage solar array. The triple-junction GaAs solar cell with rigid substrate specimens was used for the experiment. The threshold voltages of ignition discharge and secondary discharge with and without electrostatic discharge protection were determined in LEO orbit in the paper which can be used as the reference of electrostatic discharge protection. Experiments were conducted in the absence of protection and appropriate protective measures conditions, respectively. The threshold voltages under the ignition discharge and secondary discharge were identified in the condition of absence of protective measures and different protective measures. In the state of the specimen without protection, the occurrence of ignition discharge threshold voltage was 95V. The threshold voltage of secondary discharge was 130V and the location of the secondary discharge occurred in parallel with the gap of 1.079mm. In the case of protective measures, the threshold voltages of the ignition discharge and the secondary discharge have improved significantly. In a word, the experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the protective measures.