Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1765557 | Advances in Space Research | 2012 | 5 Pages |
Abstract
Particle impacts on spacecraft can cause considerable damage, even leading to complete failure. A theory for the resulting vehicle potential changes and the electromagnetic radiation from impact-induced plasma has been published by Close et al. (2010). Here we compare this theory to impacts registered by the Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrumentation on the Cassini spacecraft. We study both low-velocity (16 km/s) large particles (2.6 μm radius) detected in Saturn's rings and high-velocity (450 km/s) small particles (1 nm radius) in the solar wind. The agreement with the theory is quite good. We also apply these results to earth orbit and conclude that both Electrostatic Discharge and Electromagnetic Pulse radiation are likely and could lead to spacecraft failure.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Space and Planetary Science
Authors
Michael C. Kelley, Stephanie Pancoast, Sigrid Close, Zhenzhen Wang,