Studies of the Electrical Charging of the Tethered Electron Accelerator Mother-Daughter Rocket MAIMIK

Abstract

The MAIMIK experiment was designed to study the charging of an electron-beam emitting payload using a tethered mother-daughter payload configuration. The particle accelerator on the daughter emitted short pulses of 8keV energy electrons with a beam current which was varied in 6 steps from 20 t 800 mA. During the highest beam currents the accelerator payload was charged to potentials more than 50 percent greater than the beam energy. It is speculated that a combination of a low background plasma and a small payload may account for the apparently anomalous result. Keywords: Spacecraft charging: Electron beams: Beam plasma interactions: Sheaths; Reprints.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 04, 1988
Accession Number
ADA201771

Entities

People

  • B. N. Maehlum
  • J. Troim
  • K. M. Torkar
  • M. Freidrich
  • N. C. Maynard
  • W. F. Denig

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Air Force
  • Charged Particles
  • Classification
  • Electron Accelerators
  • Electron Beams
  • Electron Emission
  • Electrons
  • Geophysics
  • Particle Accelerators
  • Particle Beams
  • Particles
  • Security
  • Space Systems
  • Spacecraft
  • Spacecraft Charging
  • Vehicles

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Microelectronics
  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster
  • Space - Satellites