ISWAT spacecraft surface charging review

Abstract

The natural space environment exerts many harmful (called “space weather”) effects on spacecraft in orbit around the Earth as well as probes to other planets. The main hazards among these are surface charging, internal charging, single event effects, and total dose. Specifically, the ∼ keV electron population can have substantial impacts on spacecraft by causing spacecraft surface charging and electrostatic discharges (ESD). This hazard continues to be of great relevance today due to the continual evolution of the human use of space in terms of the number of satellites launched, the technologies they use and the design / manufacturing / test techniques used to build them. In the past, the majority of operating spacecraft were in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO), nowadays the Low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite population dominates and the number of Non-Geostationary Satellite Orbit (NGSO) constellations increases; these new constellations are likely to increase the technical risks associated with harmful space weather conditions. This paper summarizes the state of art for surface charging including background of the phenomenon, data sources for characterizing charging on spacecraft, modeling of the space weather environment, surface charging modeling tools, and charging indices and metrics. Future directions and both near- and long-term recommendations are also provided.