ACTA AERONAUTICAET ASTRONAUTICA SINICA >
Large manned spacecraft with active potential control at LEO
Received date: 2015-06-01
Revised date: 2015-10-26
Online published: 2015-10-30
At low Earth orbit (LEO), a large spacecraft using high voltage solar arrays will collect electron current that leads to a high negative potential, which will pose threat to astronaut extravehicular activities and spacecraft rendezvous and docking. The active spacecraft potential control can efficiently reduce spacecraft operation risks and safety of astronaut. In this paper, the ground test method to simulate the potential active controlling of negative charged spacecraft in the space environment by emission electron current using hollow cathode plasma contactor is mainly adopted. The results show that the emission electron current of hollow cathode contactor can eliminate collected electron current of spacecraft when the flow rate of Xenon exceeds minimum of 4.0 sccm, which can be the self-regulating control of spacecraft potential and the spacecraft potential is clamped within 20 V. Moreover, with the flow rate of Xenon increasing, the clamping potential is smaller. This potential control method can avoid charged danger not only to astronaut extravehicular activities but spacecraft rendezvous and docking efficiently, which is also significant to the spacecraft charging guard.
JIANG Kai , WANG Xianrong , QIN Xiaogang , YANG Shengsheng , YANG Wei , SHI Liang , LI Detian . Large manned spacecraft with active potential control at LEO[J]. ACTA AERONAUTICAET ASTRONAUTICA SINICA, 2016 , 37(5) : 1563 -1572 . DOI: 10.7527/S1000-6893.2015.0288
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