Radiation-induced insulator discharge pulses in the CRRES internal discharge monitor satellite experiment

Frederickson, A. R.; Mullen, E. G.; Brautigam, D. H.; Kerns, K. J.

The Internal Discharge Monitor (IDM) was designed to observe electrical pulses from common electrical insulators in space service. The sixteen insulator samples included twelve planar printed circuit boards and four cables. The samples were fully enclosed, mutually isolated, and space radiation penetrated 0.02 cm of aluminum before striking the samples. Pulsing began on the seventh orbit, the maximum pulse rate occurred on the seventeenth orbit when 13 pulses occurred, and the pulses slowly diminished to about one per 3 orbits six months later. After 8 months, the radiation belts abruptly increased and the pulse rates attained a new high. These pulse rates were in agreement with laboratory experience on shorter time scales. Several of the samples never pulsed. If the pulses were not confined within IDM, the physical processes could spread to become a full spacecraft anomaly. The IDM results indicate the rate at which small insulator pulses occur. Small pulses are the seeds of larger satellite electrical anomalies. The pulse rates are compared with space radiation intensities, L shell location, and spectral distributions from the radiation spectrometers on the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite.

Document ID

19920013138

Acquisition Source

Legacy CDMS

Document Type

Conference Paper

Authors

Date Acquired

September 6, 2013

Publication Date

February 1, 1992

Publication Information

Publication: NASA. Johnson Space Center, 5th Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 1991), Volume 2

Subject Category

Accession Number

92N22381

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Public

Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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