低地球轨道等离子体环境引起的高压太阳电池阵电弧放电现象的研究

A Study on Arc Discharge of HVSA in LEO Plasma Environment

把高压太阳电池阵放入低地球轨道中就会发生电弧放电,会造成航天器表面退化、电磁干扰、PN结破坏和其它负作用。文章先介绍了电弧放电的理论观点,包括Park和Hastings的假说以及Cho和Hastings的理论扩展,对放电起因、过程及研究现状进行了分析。然后给出几个典型的飞行实验及地面模拟实验的结果,证实了高压太阳电池阵在等离子体环境中电弧的产生,并发现偏置电压与高压太阳电池阵的放电率之间有密切的关系。文章最后介绍了在实验室研究过的6种减缓电弧放电的方法,并对其优缺点进行简单讨论。

When a solar array of high voltage is put in low earth orbit (LEO), an arc will be sparked, causing surface degradation, electromagnetic interference and other undesirable side-effects. The mechanism of arcing is discussed, including two theoretical hypotheses and a modified mechanism by Cho and Hastings in terms of the causes, processes and research state-of-the-art. The results of some typical flight experiments and ground simulation experiments are given to show that the arc occurs in LEO plasma environment, and the arc rate has obvious connections with bias voltage. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of the six methods to mitigate against arcing are discussed.