Speaker
Description
Surface charging of spacecraft in geostationary orbit is a familiar problem that continues to cause failures and operational difficulties to geostationary spacecraft. Spacecraft in other orbits within the magnetosphere beyond the plasmasphere, e.g. in global navigation orbits or in transit to geostationary orbit via electric orbit raising, experience a plasma environment qualitatively similar to that at GEO and charging is observed in this region. However, the plasma characteristics are not identical to GEO. Current standards specify only a GEO worst case. A more comprehensive plasma model to assess high charging levels is needed.
RBSP’s near equatorial, GTO-like orbit gives the two spacecraft wide coverage of the magnetosphere below geostationary orbit. Using HOPE data, we looked at charging events in the RBSP and examined the characteristics of the dataset. We consider what is needed for an empirical model of the charging environment and how the RBSP data may be used as input to such modelling.
