Electrostatic discharge properties of selected Voyager spacecraft materials

Twelve material and component samples were exposed to an electron beam in order to measure the time history and amplitude of resultant electrostatic discharges. The typical experimental design was to mount the test article with its dielectric surface facing the beam and its conductive portion isolated from ground except by way of a shielded cable on which a discharged pulse could be observed. The behavior of the sample was then observed at bombarding energies from 20 to 100 keV in increasing 20 keV increments and then 90 to 30 keV in decreasing 20 keV increments. Observations were made at each energy for nominally two hours at an electron flux of 4 x 10 to the 9th power/sq cm/sec.