Accession Number:

ADA576395

Title:

Spacecraft Charging Modeling - Nascap-2k

Descriptive Note:

Technical rept. 19 Sep 2011 21 Sep 2012

Corporate Author:

SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL CORP SAN DIEGO CA

Personal Author(s):

• Davis, V. A.
• Mandell, M. J.

Report Date:

2012-09-21

Pagination or Media Count:

48.0

Abstract:

In support of the larger goal to provide a plasma engineering capability to the spacecraft community, the objective of the Spacecraft Charging Modeling Nascap-2k contract is to develop, incorporate, test, and validate new algorithms for the ththree-dimensionallasma-environment spacecraft interactions computational tool, Nascap-2k. Nascap-2k is being modified to extend the range of plasma physics phenomena that the code can simulate, make the advanced code capabilities more accessible to users, and improve and maintain both the graphical and non-graphical interfaces to the code. The upgraded code is being used to simulate problems of interest to AFRL. During the first year, Nascap-2k 4.1 was modified to specify, and then optionally use, a time-dependent tabular environment in surface charging calculations. The pseudopotential technique to compute volume electron currents was modified to use a finite element approach and to include the magnetic field dependence. The upgraded code is being used to support the DSX Demonstration and Science eXperiments and AEHF-2 Advanced Extremely High Frequency spacecraft programs.

Descriptors:

• *SPACECRAFT CHARGING
• ALGORITHMS
• CODING
• ELECTRIC CURRENT
• FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
• MAGNETIC FIELDS
• SPACE ENVIRONMENTS
• SPACECRAFT

Subject Categories:

• Astronautics

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE