Rocketborne Diagnostic Instrumentation for an Experiment to Control Vehicle Potential.
Abstract
Many of the rocketborne instruments that are designed to measure ionospheric parameters, employ voltage biased or swept electrodes or apertures to collect particles from the plasma. In use, these collecting devices are biased with respect to the vehicle, or in any case are referenced to the vehicle, but in order to properly assess the significance of their accumulated measurements their bias with respect to the plasma must be known. The rocket itself will acquire a potential with respect to the ionospheric plasma, and this potential is governed by instrumentation, configuration, and local plasma conditions. This report concerns a contract to design and build several instruments using three different methods of measuring vehicle potential. Each rocket was equipped with an electron gun which was used to perturb the vehicle potential by discharging electrons into space. The three methods of determining the perturbations caused by the electron gun were the Langmuir Probe, skin current probe, and a thermal emission probe. A description and calibration of each of these instruments is contained in this report.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1974
- Accession Number
- ADA005239
Entities
People
- David A. Burt
Organizations
- Utah State University