Electrostatic charging and sheath structure of the Halley probe due to impact-generated plasmas

Details Electrostatic charging and sheath structure of the Halley probe due to impact-generated plasmas Electrostatic charging and sheath structure of the Halley probe due to impact-generated plasmas

May 1981

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1981esasp.155...67p&link_type=abstract

In ESA The Comet Halley Probe. Plasma Environ. p 67-80 (SEE N81-34113 24-88)

Computer Science

1

Computerized Simulation, Halley'S Comet, Plasma Sheaths, Space Probes, Spacecraft Charging, Cosmic Dust, Flyby Missions, Hypervelocity Impact, Ion Density (Concentration), Potential Gradients, Vlasov Equations

Scientific paper

A time-dependent cylindrical computer simulation model approximating the actual geometry of the spacecraft is used to predict the potential acquired by the cylindrical Halley probe and the potential distribution in its vicinity. The primary sources of charge are impacts of cometary neutral-gas molecules producing secondary ion and electron pairs from the surface, and impacts of dust particles resulting in expanding dense plasma balls of dust and shield material. At 20000 km from the nucleus, the ion space charge due to neutral-gas-generated ions is dominant, while the electron space charge is of minor importance. Thus the electrons and ions are decoupled to zero order. Neglecting ambient plasma yields a upper limit of +20 volts for the spacecraft potential. The dominant ion charge, strongly concentrated just above the shield, generates a strong localized positive potential peak of order +37 volts just above the shield. A second model, a spherically symmetric steady-state model obtaining self-consistent solutions predicts a surface potential of 36 volts.

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