Controlling charging and arcing on a solar powered auroral orbiting spacecraft

The Global Precipitation Measurement satellite (GPM) will be launched into a high inclination (65 degree) orbit to monitor rainfall on a global scale. Satellites in high inclination orbits have been shown to charge to high negative potentials, with the possibility of arcing on the solar arrays, when three conditions are met: a drop in plasma density below ∼10,000 cm⁻³, an injection of energetic electrons of energy more that 7–10 keV, and passage through darkness. Since all of these conditions are expected to obtain for some of the GPM orbits, charging calculations were done using first the Space Environment and Effects (SEE) Program Interactive Spacecraft Charging Handbook, and secondly the NASA Air-force Spacecraft Charging Analyzer Program (NASCAP-2k). The object of the calculations was to determine if charging was likely for the GPM configuration and materials, and specifically to see if choosing a particular type of thermal white paint would help minimize charging. A detailed NASCAP-2k geometrical model of the GPM spacecraft was built, with such a large number of nodes that it challenged the capability of NASCAP-2k to do the calculations. The results of the calculations were that for worst-case auroral charging conditions, charging to levels on the order of −120 to −230 volts could occur on GPM during night-time, with differential voltages on the solar arrays that might lead to solar array arcing. In sunlit conditions, charging did not exceed −20 V under any conditions. The night-time results were sensitive to the spacecraft surface materials chosen. For nonconducting white paints, the charging was severe, and could continue unabated throughout the passage of GPM through the auroral zone. Somewhat conductive (dissipative) white paints minimized the night-time charging to levels of - 120 V or less, and thus were recommended for GPM thermal control. It is shown that the choice of thermal control paints is important to prevent arcing on high inclination orbiting spacecraft solar arrays as well as for GEO satellites, even for solar array designs chosen to minimize arcing.