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Materials Characterization at Utah State University: Facilities and Knowledge-base of Electronic Properties of Materials Applicable to Spacecraft ChargingIn an effort to improve the reliability and versatility of spacecraft charging models designed to assist spacecraft designers in accommodating and mitigating the harmful effects of charging on spacecraft, the NASA Space Environments and Effects (SEE) Program has funded development of facilities at Utah State University for the measurement of the electronic properties of both conducting and insulating spacecraft materials. We present here an overview of our instrumentation and capabilities, which are particularly well suited to study electron emission as related to spacecraft charging. These measurements include electron-induced secondary and backscattered yields, spectra, and angular resolved measurements as a function of incident energy, species and angle, plus investigations of ion-induced electron yields, photoelectron yields, sample charging and dielectric breakdown. Extensive surface science characterization capabilities are also available to fully characterize the samples in situ. Our measurements for a wide array of conducting and insulating spacecraft materials have been incorporated into the SEE Charge Collector Knowledge-base as a Database of Electronic Properties of Materials Applicable to Spacecraft Charging. This Database provides an extensive compilation of electronic properties, together with parameterization of these properties in a format that can be easily used with existing spacecraft charging engineering tools and with next generation plasma, charging, and radiation models. Tabulated properties in the Database include: electron-induced secondary electron yield, backscattered yield and emitted electron spectra; He, Ar and Xe ion-induced electron yields and emitted electron spectra; photoyield and solar emittance spectra; and materials characterization including reflectivity, dielectric constant, resistivity, arcing, optical microscopy images, scanning electron micrographs, scanning tunneling microscopy images, and Auger electron spectra. Further details of the instrumentation used for insulator measurements and representative measurements of insulating spacecraft materials are provided in other Spacecraft Charging Conference presentations. The NASA Space Environments and Effects Program, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Boeing Corporation, NASA Graduate Research Fellowships, and the NASA Rocky Mountain Space Grant Consortium have provided support.
Document ID
20040111058
Acquisition Source
Marshall Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Dennison, J. R.
(Utah State Univ. Logan, UT, United States)
Thomson, C. D.
(Utah State Univ. Logan, UT, United States)
Kite, J.
(Utah State Univ. Logan, UT, United States)
Zavyalov, V.
(Utah State Univ. Logan, UT, United States)
Corbridge, Jodie
(Utah State Univ. Logan, UT, United States)
Date Acquired
September 7, 2013
Publication Date
March 1, 2004
Publication Information
Publication: 8th Spacecraft Charging Technology Conference
Subject Category
Spacecraft Design, Testing And Performance
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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