Deleterious satellite charging and possible mitigation schemes

Abstract

Electrostatic charge dissipation is one of the major concerns for satellites operating in the Earth's orbits. Under energetic plasma conditions, they may acquire very high negative potential (up to 10's of kV) due to the collection of energetic plasma constituents - resulting in temporary outages and permanent damages to onboard equipment. This study proposes and discusses a couple of physics-based schemes capable of mitigating/ minimizing the excessive charging effects over satellites under extreme plasma conditions in LEO/ GEO. An estimate of charge build-up on the space objects based on the charging dynamics as a function of ambient plasma parameters has been made. Our calculations illustrate that in the absence of a significant charge dissipation mechanism, a severe charging (10's kV) in the dark/ shadowed at GEO and high latitude LEO regions. We propose that installing a suitable UV lamp and micro/nano-structuring of the surface fabric can induce an efficient dissipation mechanism and effectively prevent the surface from deleterious charging effects during satellite operation. We demonstrate that the UV illumination may maintain the satellite surface at quite a small positive potential (~ 2 V) while the surface nanofabrication sustains it at a sufficiently low negative potential (~ 10 V). Both concepts are shown to work efficiently in mitigating the potential threat of massive charging and safely performing the satellite operation.