Spacecraft Environment Interactions

Introductory graduate textbook in spacecraft design and how space environment affects operations in space, for space scientists and engineers.

The breakup of the Space Shuttle Columbia as it reentered Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, reminded the public--and NASA--of the grave risks posed to spacecraft by everything from insulating foam to space debris. Here, Alan Tribble presents a singular, up-to-date account of a wide range of less conspicuous but no less consequential environmental effects that can damage or cause poor performance of orbiting spacecraft. Conveying a wealth of insight into the nature of the space environment and how spacecraft interact with it, he covers design modifications aimed at eliminating or reducing such environmental effects as solar absorptance increases caused by self-contamination, materials erosion by atomic oxygen, electrical discharges due to spacecraft charging, degradation of electrical circuits by radiation, and bombardment by micrometeorites. This book is unique in that it bridges the gap between studies of the space environment as performed by space physicists and spacecraft design engineering as practiced by aerospace engineers.

The goals of the 10th International Space Conference on “Protection of Materials and Structures from Space Environment” ICPMSE-10J, since its inception in 1992, have been to facilitate exchanges between members of the various engineering and science disciplines involved in the development of space materials, including aspects of LEO, GEO and Deep Space environments, ground-based qualification, and in-flight experiments and lessons learned from operational vehicles that are closely interrelated to disciplines of the atmospheric sciences, solar-terrestrial interactions and space life sciences. The knowledge of environmental conditions on and around the Moon, Mars, Venus and the low Earth orbit as well as other possible candidates for landing such as asteroids have become an important issue, and protecting both hardware and human life from the effects of space environments has taken on a new meaning in light of the increased interest in space travel and colonization of other planets. And while many material experiments have been carried out on the ground and in open space in the last 50 years (LDEF, MEEP, SARE, MISSE, AOP, DSPSE, ESEM, EURECA, HST, MDIM, MIS, MPID, MPAC and SEED), many questions regarding the environmental impact of space on materials remain either poorly understood or unanswered. The coming generations of scientists will have to continue this work and tackle new challenges, continuing to build the level of confidence humans will need to continue the colonization of space. It is hoped that the proceedings of the ICPMSE-10J presented in this book will constitute a small contribution to doing so.

The effects of the natural space environments on spacecraft design, development, and operation are the topic of a series of NASA Reference Publications currently being developed by the Electromagnetics and Environments Branch, Systems Analysis and Integration Laboratory, Marshall Space Flight Center. This primer, second in the series, describes the interactions between a spacecraft and the natural space plasma. Under certain environmental/spacecraft conditions, these interactions result in the phenomenon known as spacecraft charging. It is the focus of this publication to describe the phenomenon of spacecraft charging and its possible adverse effects on spacecraft and to present the key elements of a Spacecraft Charging Effects Protection Plan. Herr, J. L. and Mccollum, M. B. Marshall Space Flight Center ...

As commercial and military spacecraft become more important to the world's economy and defense, and as new scientific and exploratory missions are launched into space, the need for a single comprehensive resource on spacecraft charging becomes increasingly critical. Fundamentals of Spacecraft Charging is the first and only textbook to bring together all the necessary concepts and equations for a complete understanding of the subject. Written by one of the field's leading authorities, this essential reference enables readers to fully grasp the newest ideas and underlying physical mechanisms related to the electrostatic charging of spacecraft in the space environment. Assuming that readers may have little or no background in this area, this complete textbook covers all aspects of the field. The coverage is detailed and thorough, and topics range from secondary and backscattered electrons, spacecraft charging in Maxwellian plasmas, effective mitigation techniques, and potential wells and barriers to operational anomalies, meteors, and neutral gas release. Significant equations are derived from first principles, and abundant examples, exercises, figures, illustrations, and tables are furnished to facilitate comprehension. Fundamentals of Spacecraft Charging is the definitive reference on the physics of spacecraft charging and is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduate-level students, and professional space researchers.

A NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on the Behavior of Systems in the Space Environment was held at the Atholl Palace Hotel, Pitlochry, Perthshire, Scotland, from July 7 through July 19, 1991. This publication is the Proceedings of the Institute. The NATO Advanced Study Institute Program of the NATO Science Committee is a unique and valuable forum, under whose auspices almost one thousand international tutorial meetings have been held since the inception of the program in 1959. The ASI is intended to be primarily a high-level teaching activity at which a carefully defined subject is presented in a systematic and coherently structured program. The subject is treated in considerable depth by lecturers eminent; in their :(ield and of international standing. The subject is presented to other scientists who either will already have specialized in the field or possess an advanced general background. The ASI is aimed at approximately the post-doctoral level. This ASI emphasized the basic physics of the space environment and the engineering aspects of the environment's interactions with spacecraft.