Spacecraft Plasma Environment and Contamination Simulation Code: Description and First Tests

Abstract

Anewcodedevotedto spacecraft local induced environmentsimulationis presented. Its general frame, spacecraft geometry and mesh, and plasma module are described. The three-dimensional mesh, although of a structured rectangular type, allows a goodrepresentation of spacecraft surface positionsand orientationsdue to the automatic generation of partial cubes by an object description language. The particle-in-cell plasma module can simulate time evolution and was stable for cell-size-to-Debye-length ratios as large as 60. The main contributions of this study are four test simulations.The Ž rst three, Child–Langmuir law and two Langmuirprobes, are borrowed from plasma physics, and their solutions are known, either analytically or numerically. They constitute extensive testing of the plasma code over a wide range of Debye lengths. The last simulation,a typical low-Earth-orbit environment, was more complex, and only partial validationwas achieved.