NASCAP Modeling of GEO Satellites--Spacecraft Charging is Back!

During the last few years of Solar Minimum, GEO spacecraft charging design practices may have become lax because of paucity of spacecraft charging events. Unfortunately, this has also been the time of great changes in spacecraft design, because of the new emphases on higher power arrays and lower costs. Also unfortunate is the fact that spacecraft charging may lead to failures of solar array strings, panels, or entire spacecraft. One way to prevent satellite failures die to spacecraft charging events is to simulate the effects with a charging code, such as the venerable NASCAP/GEO code. We will discuss the use of NASCAP on the ACTS satellite as well as a newer application dealing with typical recent spacecraft charging anomalies.