Vehicle charging effects during electron beam emission from the CHARGE-2 experiment

Abstract

The CHARGE-2 sounding rocket payload has measured the transient and steady-state charging of a spacecraft in LEO during the emission of a low-power electron beam. The electron beam successfully escaped the emitting spacecraft above 240 km, rather than being degraded by the spacecraft's potentials. These potentials were limited to about half of the 1-kV beam accelerating potential at all latitudes, suggesting that the electron beam was able to escape at altitudes down to 160 km. Electrons created from beam-plasma interactions become increasingly important in the return current below 240 km, and increased with decreasing altitude.