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Overview of the effects of neutral gas releases on high-voltage sounding rocket platforms |
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| Authors: | G A Berg W J Raitt D C Thompson B E Gilchrist N B Myers P Rodriguez C L Siefring H R Anderson D W Potter |
| Institution: | a Center for Atmospheric and Space Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-4405, U.S.A. b Space Physics Research Laboratory, University of Michigan, 2455 Hayward, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2143, U.S.A. c Rome Lab, 31 Grenier Str., Hanscom AFB, MA 01731, U.S.A. d Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375-5000, U.S.A. e Science Applications International Corp., 13400B Northup Way, Suite 36, Bellevue, Washington 98005, U.S.A. |
| Abstract: | Four recent sounding rocket experiments demonstrate that the release of neutral gas from both positively and negatively charged vehicles returns the vehicle potential to near the plasma potential. Early active experiment payloads, CHARGE-2 and SPEAR-1, observed enhanced currents from/to the vehicles during unplanned attitude thruster firings. The follow-on CHARGE-2B and SPEAR-3 payloads directly measured the changes to the vehicle potential caused by both planned argon and unplanned nitrogen releases. The gas releases from positively charged CHARGE-2B consistently reduced the potential to 20–50 V, whereas the gas releases from negatively charged SPEAR-3 brought the potential to between −200 and −500 V. The difference in grounding levels for positively and negatively charged payloads suggests that the gas responsible for grounding is near the vehicle, within a small fraction of the sheath size. |
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