**2. Space weather simulation facility**

A spacecraft on orbit interacts with the ambient plasma environment, comprised of electrons, photons, and ions in a vacuum, in a number of different ways. For example, the surface of a spacecraft can develop a large potential relative to the spacecraft chassis due to non-penetrating charged particle deposition. Additionally, highly energetic photons [ultraviolet (UV) and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV)] and charged particles deliver high levels of radiation with sufficient energy to break chemical bonds to the craft, surface materials in particular. This energy deposition leads to chemical bond breakage and reformation and radical formation [9]. These chemical changes manifest themselves as changes to a number of different physical properties including absorptivity and emissivity, electrical conductivity, and mechanical properties of the materials. Because it is not experimentally convenient to study on orbit spacecraft *in situ*, the spacecraft charging and instrument calibration laboratory in the space vehicles directorate of the US air force research laboratory have constructed a space weather simulation chamber, nicknamed Jumbo, in which electron and VUV photon damage can be inflicted on a variety of spacecraft materials and the effects of this damage can be quantified. The results of these simulated spaceaging experiments can be used to refine existing models for spacecraft differential charging [10], predict, and characterize anomalous satellite behavior, identify space debris, and even be used to diagnose the health of satellites on orbit from ground-based observations.

(or reflected spectrum), and polarization. Any change in these quantities may lead to satellite

Spacecraft charging is the potential a spacecraft or spacecraft component will assume as a result of the balance of incoming charged particles from the environment and particles removed via material conduction or electron emission. Interaction with space plasma can result in potential gradients between different spacecraft components (differential charging) of thousands or even tens of thousands of volts, which can seriously affect the operation of the spacecraft. Differential charging is most pronounced in GEO where the environment is dominated by electrons and the flux of mitigating ions is relatively low. Material properties also affect the charging behavior of a spacecraft. For instance, secondary electron emission and photoelectron emission tend to discharge surfaces, so spacecraft charging is very sensitive to these material properties. Also, dielectric materials can lose surface charge to interior chassis "ground" by electron conduction; this property also changes as the dielectric interacts with the ambient plasma. This is important due to the fact that in the presence of space plasma, electric arcs can jump from a negative surface to a positive surface if the potential difference between them is great enough. Depending on the amount of energy stored in the "surface capacitance," these arcs can lead to contamination of adjacent surfaces, radio frequency interference, sharp current transients and electronic upsets, and in the worst case can develop into

"sustained arcs" that can destroy entire solar arrays or other electrical circuits.

tion exposure, the magnitude of the changes is poorly characterized at present.

GEO are much lower than for electrons [5, 7].

**2. Space weather simulation facility**

In general, charge buildup anywhere on or in the spacecraft can lead to arcing. Changes in surface and bulk conductivity, secondary electron emission, and photoemission will lead to changes in the local electric fields and therefore, changes in the susceptibility of spacecraft to arcing. Unfortunately, although these electrical properties are known to change with radia-

In the laboratory materials degradation tests reported here, the incident electrons are 90 keV electrons unless otherwise noted. This energy is chosen because the outer belt non-thermal electron flux is highest at lower energies, so they are most important from an energy deposition standpoint. Finally, 90 keV electrons can easily be produced by commercial electron guns and are less dangerous from an X-ray production standpoint than higher energy electrons. High-energy ions can also produce material degradation, but the fluxes of these particles in

A spacecraft on orbit interacts with the ambient plasma environment, comprised of electrons, photons, and ions in a vacuum, in a number of different ways. For example, the surface of a spacecraft can develop a large potential relative to the spacecraft chassis due to non-penetrating charged particle deposition. Additionally, highly energetic photons [ultraviolet (UV) and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV)] and charged particles deliver high levels of radiation with sufficient energy to break chemical bonds to the craft, surface materials in particular. This energy deposition leads to chemical bond breakage and reformation and radical formation [9]. These chemical

misidentification, or be indicative of a change in satellite health.

228 Plasma Science and Technology - Basic Fundamentals and Modern Applications

The Jumbo space weather simulation chamber consists of a 6' long, 6' diameter cylindrical vacuum chamber, energetic particle sources, and various probes used for material characterization [11]. Pressures of < 10−6 Torr can be achieved from the atmosphere in ~1 h using a combination of mechanical pumps and a turbo- and/or a cryopump. In GEO, the electromagnetic radiation most likely to damage polymer materials is the Lyman-α line of hydrogen at 121.6 nm. These VUV) photons have enough energy (~10 eV) to break bonds in polymer materials. In order to mimic Lyman-α line of hydrogen, the chamber is equipped with four Krypton lamps (Resonance Ltd.) with emission lines at 123.6 and 116.5 nm, providing approximately 10 suns of VUV radiation. The prime electron source is a Kimball physics EG8105-UD electron flood gun with a range of 1–100 keV. This electron gun is used both for material aging (high-energy, deeply penetrating electrons) and for charging of materials (low-energy, shallowly penetration electrons) in order to perform SPD experiments from which material bulk conductivity/resistivity can be derived [12].

In addition to the particle sources, which are used to age common spacecraft materials; jumbo is equipped with a number of probes, which are used to characterize physical characteristics of the chosen material before, during, and after irradiation. The primary characterization tools used *in vacuo* are an integrating sphere with fiber optic coupled external light source and spectrometer, which is used to characterize optical changes and a non-contact electrostatic voltmeter, which is used to investigate material charge transport characteristics using the SPD method.

Optical transmission/reflectance spectra are recorded using an in-vacuum integrating sphere so that the measured quantity is the directional hemispherical reflectance (DHR). For each measurement, an ASD FieldSpec Pro spectroradiometer operating over a 350–2500 nm range collects first a white reference spectrum from a piece of in-vacuum calibrated Spectralon®. The electron beam is then temporarily extinguished and the motion system moves the integrating sphere to a sample carousel where it measures samples as they are rotated into the measurement position [13].

The SPD method utilizes charge injection via a low-energy electron beam to induce an electric potential near the surface of the material. To perform an SPD experiment, the front surface of the material is dusted by a beam of 5 keV electrons for 1–2 s immediately, after which the non-contact voltmeter is positioned 1–2 mm from the surface and begins to record the surface potential of the dielectric. After the charged body induced by the beam has reached the grounded backplane, the dissipation of surface potential is primarily determined by the loss of electrons from the material and is directly proportional to the material conductivity. SPD measurements were performed in darkness to eliminate the possibility of optically enhanced conductivity and photoemission. Since SPD is measured immediately following the charging electron beam, persistent radiation-induced conductivity (RIC) is still active [14]. However, it is only in effect between the surface and the penetration depth of the electrons, which for the case of 5 keV electrons in polyimide is less than a micron [3]. This minimizes the effect of RIC, which is assumed to be negligible for the bulk of the material in this measurement.

**Figure 2** is a plot of the SPD rate as a function of polyimide resistivity [12]. When that decay rate exceeds the orbital period (1 day for GEO) the material can gather charge for the entire mission and the likelihood of discharge increases. The red and green stars in **Figure 2** show the resistivity of pristine polyimide and polyimide that has been radiation damaged, respectively. The irradiated material has become far less susceptible to charge accumulation, which is important to take into account in the design of spacecraft and the characterization of anom-

Space Plasma Interactions with Spacecraft Materials http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.78306 231

Charge transport characteristics of materials exposed to space plasma are defined by their fundamental material properties; in particular for insulators, density, and energy distribution of electron trap states within the band gap. Under the approach described by Dennison and Hoffmann, [20] as materials are bombarded with a flux of penetrating high-energy radiation, energy is shared with many bound (valence) electrons within the material, which are excited into energy levels scattered in the conduction band. These excited electrons quickly thermalize to shallow localized trap states just below the conduction band edge. Next, electrons can, among other processes, (i) be thermally re-excited into the conduction band, leading to thermally assisted charge transport, and termed radiation-induced conductivity (RIC); [21] or (ii) hop to an adjacent trap, termed thermally assisted hopping conductivity or dark current (DC) conductivity

**Figure 3** Presents a representative charge–discharge curve of electron-irradiated PI material during and after bombardment with non-penetrating electrons. This curve can be divided into three regions: (I) charging section driven by the balance of electron deposition, secondary electron generation, RIC and DC conductivity; (II) pre-transit discharge section dominated by the RIC and DC conduction, as is the time regime when the deposited charge body is traversing the material but has not made contact with the grounded backplane; (III) post-transit

**Figure 2.** The plot of charge decay time versus resistivity value for PI. The red star indicates the resistivity of pristine PI

and the green star that of laboratory-aged Kapton-H®. Figure adapted from [19].

[22]. In addition, as a material age, more traps are generated [23].

discharge section dominated DC conduction.

alous spacecraft behavior.

In addition to in-vacuo characterization, a portable vacuum pumped window is used to transport aged materials to a commercial UV/visible transmission/reflection spectrometer (Perkin-Elmer Lambda 950) and a Fourier transform infrared reflection spectrometer (Surface Optics SOC-400T). The portable vacuum window was designed to enable characterization of air sensitive materials using existing bench-top instruments without subjecting the space-weathered samples to unnecessary air exposure. Post-irradiation air exposure has been shown to modify certain materials' chemistry extensively and on a very short time scale (minutes) [15].