Method and Apparatus for Neutralizing Potentials Induced on Spacecraft Surfaces

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Method and Apparatus for Neutralizing Potentials Induced on Spacecraft Surfaces

R. E. Hunter

A potential induced on the surface of an orbiting spacecraft is neutralized to the potential of a plasma through which the spacecraft is traveling by directing charged particles into the plasma from the spacecraft surface. The induced potential occurs in response to bombardment of the spacecraft surface by ambient charged particles which may be negative or positive. The charged particles directed into the plasma from the surface have the same polarity as the induced potential to provide the neutralization. The invention can be utilized to maintain different, electrically isolated segments of a spacecraft surface at the same potential to prevent electric discharges between the different parts and to protect electric circuits within the spacecraft. The invention can also be utilized to enable charged particle detectors on the surface of a spacecraft to operate more accurately so that the particles are not perturbed by a potential difference between the spacecraft surface and the plasma.