Aerospace and spacecraft charging is a cause of a number of operational problems. Some satellites are equipped with numerous small thruster engines to stabilize and to correct their position. Particularly thruster plumes produced by small bipropellant engines consist of electrically charged clouds of droplets, moisture and ions. A lo N engine on the GALILEO spacecraft was installed in a large high vacuum measuring plant equipped with electric field measurement devices suitable for the investigation of plume charging effects. A stream of charged particles leaving the thruster and interacting with spacecraft surfaces could be observed. The results are discussed. (Author)
Aerospace Vehicles Charging by Thruster Plumes
1983
6 pages
Report
No indication
English