U.S.-Japan Cooperative Research: Theoretical and Experimental Studies of High Voltage Surfaces in Space

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This award will enable Prof. Daniel Hastings of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to collaborate with Prof. Kyoichi Kuriki and co-workers at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Kanagawa, Japan, over a period of two years. They will investigate the problem of destructive current flows that often arise between the plasma that exists in space, and charged metal surfaces such as occur in high-voltage solar energy arrays. The purpose of this research is to develop a comprehensive theoretical description of the interaction between the space plasma and high voltage surfaces, with the specific aim of providing preflight predictions for a Japanese high-voltage solar array that is to be tested in space in 1993. The U.S. researchers will perform computer simulation of the geomagnetic fields arising from the array, and their effect on the space plasma. Their Japanese collaborators will attempt to confirm the analytical results by laboratory experiment and subsequently iterate array design to minimize any problems predicted. The results of this research will have important impact on the design of future spacecraft, and on the understanding of problems which have already occurred with several U.S. spacecraft.