Characteristics of sustained arcing discharges between wires in vacuum

The anomaly of Japanese satellite ADEOS-2 (ADvanced Earth Observing Satellite-2: Midori-2) appeared in 2003 is supposed to be caused by arcing discharges initiated due to ESD (ElectroStatic Discharge) in the bundled wire-harnesses of the solar paddle. In order to make the conditions of the occurrence of the discharge clear, it is necessary to evaluate the arcing discharge characteristics in vacuum quantitatively. Therefore we tried to investigate the characteristics of arcing discharges between two exposed conductors consisting of a pair of insulating wires for space use. The discharges were triggered by ESD released from a capacitor. These characteristics were obtained as parameters of the amplitude of ESD, the pressure in the chamber, the direction of the current flowing the conductor and so on. We obtained the result that the arcing discharge time increased with the amplitude of the ESD and the time is affected by the magnetic field formed between the conductors by the current flowing the conductor itself.
資料番号: AA0063965012