A review of plasma interactions with spacecraft in low Earth orbit

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All spacecraft interact in some manner with the plasma environment in space, either the natural environment or a self‐induced environment. Early work on plasma spacecraft interactions focused on geosynchronous altitudes where the primary effect is spacecraft charging from the non‐Maxwellian high‐energy plasma environment. This work has been extensively reviewed. In the last several years, there have been a number of measurements in low Earth orbit (LEO) which, when combined with models, have revealed a rich variety of plasma interaction phenomena at these low altitudes. These are reviewed in this work. These include charging on polar orbits, ram and wake flows, use of high‐voltage power systems in space, arcing on high‐voltage solar arrays, noise generation in self induced plasma clouds around large, active spacecraft such as the shuttle, anomalous ionization of emitted neutral gases, use of electrodynamic tethers and plasma contactors and phenomena associated with the use of electrically propelled rockets.