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

该奖项将使麻省理工学院的Daniel Hastings教授与Kyoichi Kuriki教授以及日本神奈川空间与航天科学研究所的同事在两年的时间内进行合作。他们将研究在太空中存在的等离子体和带电金属表面（如高压太阳能阵列）之间经常出现的破坏性电流问题。这项研究的目的是对空间等离子体和高压表面之间的相互作用进行全面的理论描述，其具体目的是为将于1993年在空间进行试验的日本高压太阳能阵列提供飞行前预测。美国研究人员将对阵列产生的地磁场及其对空间等离子体的影响进行计算机模拟。他们的日本合作者将尝试通过实验室实验来确认分析结果，并随后迭代阵列设计，以尽量减少预测的任何问题。这项研究的结果将对未来航天器的设计产生重要影响，并对一些美国航天器已经发生的问题的理解产生重要影响。

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.