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

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的广泛影响将为空间工业提供及时和具有成本效益的手段，以准确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、真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。在现实模拟环境中研究子系统响应的能力，并告知复杂模型，将以更低的成本实现更快的优化和设计迭代。拟议的项目将开发一种仿真工具，在用户友好的界面中耦合表面和内部充电的巨大时间尺度差异，并将该工具与动态空间辐射测试室配对。具有这些功能的仿真工具解决了实践状态下的可用性差距，并能够在一次仿真中解决完整的航天器充电问题。产生广谱能量并在现场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中，而不需要目前由于能力、调度和适当设施规模的限制而需要的近似和外推。拟议的系统将提供测试和建模子系统的新能力，如人体辐射防护装置、卫星材料和组件、太阳能电池板等；这将使设计进步比现有的更快、更准确、更有效。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.