Plasma current collection of high voltage solar array: experimental results

International audience; Implementation of electrical propulsion on new generation satellites involves development of high voltage solar arrays which supposes to solve some technological problems. One of these problems is the interaction between the solar panel and the environment knowing that this environment is modified by the plasma created by electrical propulsion.Concurrently to a numerical approach conducted with SPIS computations, presented in a dedicated presentation, we have carried out an experimental work in order to validate these simulation results.Tests are performed in JONAS plasma facility on a semi-solar panel sizing 4x1m².The solar panel is polarized up to Vbus = 350V to simulate the voltage generated by lightened solar cells. All the electrical setup and solar panel are kept electrically floating versus the chamber walls. Two electrical layouts of solar cell strings are studied with 3 plasma densities from 10e11 to 10e13m-3.For each electrical layout, plasma density and Vbus value, we measure the floating potential of the solar panel and the collected plasma current by solar cells strings.