1. Spacecraft Charging Related Risk of Floating Connector Pins
- Author
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Justin J. Likar, Kris Hartojo, Nigel P. Meredith, George Ott, and John Bird
- Subjects
Nuclear and High Energy Physics ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,business.industry ,Computer science ,Electrical engineering ,Connector Pin ,Condensed Matter Physics ,01 natural sciences ,010305 fluids & plasmas ,Spacecraft charging ,Cable gland ,0103 physical sciences ,Geostationary orbit ,Satellite ,Design standard ,Electronics ,business ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Medium Earth orbit - Abstract
Every national spacecraft charging related design guideline or design standard includes prohibitions against floating, or ungrounded, connector pins. The rationale is obvious. A floating connector pin represents ungrounded metal with a propensity to accumulate charge from the space plasma environment and, upon breakdown, effectively couple the discharge energy directly into sensitive system electronics by virtue of adjacent pins and cables. Satellite designers may recognize that, seemingly as common as the rationale is obvious, there are instances in violation of this clear guideline and impassioned arguments for permissions to do so. This paper represents a comprehensive effort to quantitatively, theoretically, analytically, and empirically assess the risk associated with ungrounded connector pins in the selected (geostationary earth orbit and medium earth orbit) orbits.
- Published
- 2018
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