Ion mass spectrometer measurements from the Space Shuttle

Ion-mass-spectrometer measurements made, as part of the University of Iowa's Plasma Diagnostic Package, on the STS-3 and Spacelab 2 missions, sampled a variety of positive ion composition perturbations in response to gas emissions from the vehicle. A background of contaminant ion species (mostly relating to water) always exists in the vicinity of the Shuttle. The measured number fluxes of the contaminant ions vary differently from those of the ambient ions in response to changes in the spectrometer and spacecraft angles of attack. There is a near-Shuttle wake cavity in the contaminant ion distributions which has a different spatial configuration than the wake of the ambient ions. Although water dumps produce the longest term ion perturbations, the most well defined effects were observed from measurements taken during the short firings of the reaction-control-system thrusters.