SBIR Phase I: Design and Development of a Dynamic Spacecraft Charging Test Chamber and Combined Spacecraft Charging Effects Simulation Environment

这一小企业创新研究第一阶段项目的广泛影响将为航天工业提供一种及时和具有成本效益的手段，以准确地量化和评估空间辐射对其材料和产品的影响。公司将有能力了解其材料和产品在动态，现实的空间辐射环境中的性能，这将导致材料的进步，更长的寿命和更少的事故/故障。在逼真的模拟环境中研究子系统响应并为复杂模型提供信息的能力将使优化和设计迭代速度更快，成本更低。拟议项目将开发一种模拟工具，在用户友好的界面中将表面和内部充电的巨大时间尺度差异结合起来，并将该工具与动态空间辐射测试室配对。具有这些功能的模拟工具解决了实践中的可用性差距，并能够在一次模拟中解决整个航天器充电问题。产生广谱能量并原位改变这些源的能力允许材料和物体暴露于现实的环境变化，而无需由于适当设施的能力、调度和大小的限制而当前所需的近似和外推。 拟议的系统将提供对人体辐射防护装置、卫星材料和部件、太阳能电池板等子系统进行测试和建模的新能力;这将使设计进步更快，更准确，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will offer the space industry a timely and cost-effective means for accurately quantifying and evaluating the effects of space radiation on their materials and products. Companies will have the capability to understand the performance of their materials and products in dynamic, realistic space radiation environments, which will lead to advances in materials, longer lifespans, and fewer accidents/failures. The capability to study subsystem response in a realistic simulated environment and inform complex models will enable faster optimization and design iterations at lower costs.The proposed project will develop a simulation tool coupling the drastic timescale differences of surface and internal charging in a user-friendly interface, and pairing this tool with a dynamic space radiation testing chamber. A simulation tool with these capabilities addresses the usability gap in the state of practice and enables the solution of the complete spacecraft charging problem in a single simulation. The ability to produce broad spectrum energies and alter these sources in-situ allows for materials and objects to be exposed to realistic environmental changes without the approximations and extrapolations currently required due to the limitations in capability, scheduling, and size at appropriate facilities. The proposed system will offer a new capability for testing and modeling of subsystems such as human radiation protection devices, satellite materials and components, solar panels, and others; this will enable design advances that are faster, more accurate, and more effective than those currently available.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.