Initial Results From the Active Spacecraft Potential Control Onboard Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

Abstract

NASA’s magnetospheric multiscale (MMS) mission was successfully launched in March 2015. The scientific objectives of MMS are to explore and understand fundamental plasma physics processes in the earth’s magnetosphere: magnetic reconnection, particle acceleration, and turbulence. The region of scientific interest of MMS is in a tenuous plasma environment where the positive spacecraft potential may reach an equilibrium as high as several tens of volts. The active spacecraft potential control (ASPOC) instrument neutralizes the spacecraft potential by releasing the positive charge produced by indium ion emitters. While the method has successfully been applied to other spacecraft such as Cluster and Double Star, new developments in the design of the emitters and the electronics are enabling lower spacecraft potentials and higher reliability compared to previous missions. In this paper, we report the initial results from the tests of the ASPOC performance during the commissioning phase and discuss the different effects on the particle and field instruments observed at different plasma environments in the magnetosphere.