SU1743015A1 - Method of electric charge removal from space vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to the control of harmful manifestations of static electricity and can be used to control the potential of spacecraft. The aim of the invention is to neutralize the own atmosphere of the spacecraft and to increase the efficiency of its discharge. For this purpose, the discharge device is carried out into the surrounding space at a distance of not less than nine radii of the spacecraft. 3 il.

Description

WITH

WITH

The invention relates to a technique for controlling the harmful effects of static electricity and can be used to control the potential of spacecraft.

There are various active and passive methods for reducing the electrification of spacecraft. In particular, a method is known for dissipating electrical charges into the space surrounding an aircraft through the main discharge channel.

The disadvantage of these methods is that they do not take into account the state of the own atmosphere of the spacecraft when the charge is discharged into the surrounding space. Therefore, discharge devices installed on spacecraft, reducing the integral potential of a spacecraft relative to space, simultaneously contribute to the charging of the own atmosphere of spacecraft, which at pressures of gases surrounding the spacecraft 10 3 Torr and uneven solar illumination can cause electric charges surface effects of the spacecraft, which in turn generate secondary effects: malfunctions of the electronic equipment, destruction of structural materials, etc. In addition, the presence of the charged own atmosphere of the aircraft also makes it difficult to discharge the charge from the surface of the spacecraft into the surrounding space.

VI

Igo o

ate

The purpose of the invention is to neutralize the spacecraft’s own atmosphere and to increase the efficiency of its discharge,

This goal is achieved by the fact that the known methods of reducing the electrification of spacecraft are carried out by moving the discharge device into the surrounding space for at least nine radii of the spacecraft.

In this case, the excess electric charge accumulated by the spacecraft during the flight flows to a discharge device located outside the spacecraft’s own atmosphere, and is dumped from it into the surrounding space, without - apparatus.

Technical solutions with similar features are not known to the author and the authors; therefore, the proposed method has significant differences.

FIG. 1 illustrates the inventive method; in fig. Figure 2 depicts a scheme for studying the charge transfer from a charged body simulating a spacecraft; in fig. 3 the corresponding dependences of the currents b and g on the pressure of the residual atmosphere of the interelectrode space 7–7 imitating the own atmosphere of the spacecraft.

The remote discharge device 1, which is electrically connected with the spacecraft 2 and contains apparatus for implementing active and / or passive methods for reducing the electrification of spacecraft, is carried out with the help of the extendable rod 3 beyond the limits of the spacecraft’s own atmosphere and is oriented to ensure that the charge is dumped in the opposite direction to the spacecraft. The distance I of the removal of the discharge device 1 from the spacecraft 2 can be determined from the expression

Pk Pi (RK + I) 2, (1)

where Pk is the pressure of the own atmosphere directly at the surface of the spacecraft;

RK is the radius of the spacecraft;

PI is the pressure at distance I from the spacecraft.

If we consider that the spacecraft’s own atmosphere is

the surface can be 10 3 Torr, and the effect of charging its own atmosphere becomes negligible at pressures of 10 Torr, then, putting in equation (1) Rk, PI, we obtain the condition for the discharge of the discharge unit

  9RK (2)

The ultraviolet radiation source 4 (see Fig. 2) stimulates the extraction of photoelectrons from the charged object 5. (The potential of the charged object is detected by an electrostatic paratolt voltmeter). Accelerated by the field of the anode 6, the photoelectrons pass through the interelectrode space 7-7 and fall on the Farde 8 cylinder. atmosphere of the interelectrode space 7-7.

In the pressure range 4 P 4 Torr in the system of electrodes 6-8 and 7-7 charged by the flow of photoelectrons, the residual atmosphere (the charge of the residual atmosphere is registered with the help of probe 9) flow and fe, the peaks of which fall on the pressure P 10 Torr . When the gas pressure is 4-10 Torrtok in the system of electrodes 7-7, it stops, and the current li acquires a stationary value 1e corresponding to the unimpeded passage of photoelectrons from the charged object 5 through the space 7-7 to the Farad cylinder 8.

Consequently, at a pressure of P 10 Torr, the residual gas atmosphere (the intrinsic atmosphere of the spacecraft) loses its current-carrying properties and does not prevent the discharge (flow of electrons) of the charged objects in it.

Thus, the removal of the discharge device from the surface of a spacecraft, where the pressure of its own atmosphere can reach Torr, to the region P Р Pk, makes it possible to effectively discharge excess charge from the spacecraft while maintaining the electrical neutrality of the atmosphere of the spacecraft. In particular, in order to obtain a reliable effect of the discharge of a spacecraft, it is necessary to remove the remote discharge device from the spacecraft to a distance of at least 9 of its radii, which corresponds to a decrease in the pressure of its own atmosphere.

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spacecraft of 2 orders of magnitude.

Claims (1)

The invention The method of removing electrical charge from a spacecraft using an external, electrically connected and oriented away from a spacecraft of a discharge device 2 3QQB eight yy  -. R P LT-j devices, characterized in that, in order to neutralize the cosmic aircraft’s own atmosphere and increase discharge efficiency, the discharge device moves the surrounding space at least nine times the radius of the spacecraft. 1 SCEP 7 G ± L LTTLI Fig