Nano dust impacts on spacecraft and boom antenna charging

作者：Pantellini Filippo^*; Belheouane Soraya; Meyer Vernet Nicole; Zaslavsky Arnaud

来源：Astrophysics and Space Science, 2012, 341(2): 309-314.

DOI：10.1007/s10509-012-1108-4

• Interplanetary dust and gas
• Plasma interactions with antennas
• Photoemission

High rate sampling detectors measuring the potential difference between the main body and boom antennas of interplanetary spacecraft have been shown to be efficient means to measure the voltage pulses induced by nano dust impacts on the spacecraft body itself (see Meyer-Vernet et al. in Sol. Phys. 256:463, 2009). However, rough estimates of the free charge liberated in post impact expanding plasma cloud indicate that the cloud%26apos;s own internal electrostatic field is too weak to account for measured pulses as the ones from the TDS instrument on the STEREO spacecraft frequently exceeding 0.1 V/m. In this paper we argue that the detected pulses are not a direct measure of the potential structure of the plasma cloud, but are rather the consequence of a transitional interruption of the photoelectron return current towards the portion of the antenna located within the expanding cloud.

• 出版日期2012-10