The Space Environment

ADNAN ASHRAF
 Factors Affecting Spacecraft
• Gravity:
• The gravitational environment causes some physiological problems but also provides
opportunities for manufacturing
• Earth’s atmosphere:
• Earth’s atmosphere affects a spacecraft, even in orbit
• Vacuum:
• The vacuum in space above the atmosphere gives spacecraft another challenge
• Natural and man-made objects:
• Natural and man-made objects in space pose collision hazards
• Radiation and charged particles:
• Radiation and charged particles from the Sun and the rest of the universe can
severely damage unprotected spacecraft
 Gravity
• The gravitational environment causes some physiological problems but
also provides opportunities for manufacturing
• Less Gravity than Earth (90%)
• Free Fall (Floating in Space)
• Why satellite does not hit the earth’s surface?
• For interplanetary spacecraft, "the Sun’s gravitational pull dominates”
• Gravity dictates the size and shape of a spacecraft’s orbit
• Launch vehicles must first overcome gravity to fling spacecraft into space.
Once a spacecraft is in orbit, gravity determines the amount of propellant its
engines must use to move between orbits or link up with other spacecraft.
Beyond Earth, the gravitational pull of the Moon, the Sun, and other planets
similarly shape the spacecraft’s path.
 Gravity
• Micro – g Manufacturing
• Demand for high-tech solutions requiring higher resolutions, faster processors, more
bandwidth, greater precision, novel materials, unique alloys, innovative processes,
higher energy efficiency, more processes in a smaller volume and more sophisticated
tools in general are pushing materials and processes for manufacturing to the point
that defects at the atomic- and molecular-level matter
• Building in microgravity can reduce those defects
• A special type of fiber-optic cable called ZBLAN
• When manufactured in microgravity, the thin cable is less likely to develop tiny
crystals that increase signal loss. When built without those flaws, the cable can be
orders of magnitude better at transmitting light over long distances, such as for
telecommunications, lasers and high-speed internet
 Gravity
• Physiological problems
• Transitioning from one gravity field
• Spatial orientation
• Head-eye and hand-eye coordination
• Balance
• Transitioning from weightlessness to gravity
• Post-flight orthostatic intolerance
• Long-Term Effects
• Without Earth’s gravity affecting the human body, weight-bearing bones lose on
average 1% to 1.5% of mineral density per month during spaceflight
 Earth Atmosphere
• Drag—shortens orbital lifetimes
• Atomic oxygen—degrades spacecraft surfaces

• Two Important Variables

• Atmospheric Density
• Atmospheric Pressure
 Earth Atmosphere
• Two Important Variables
• Atmospheric Density
• Atmospheric Pressure
 Earth Atmosphere
• The drag on spacecraft in orbit depends:
• The air’s density
• The spacecraft’s speed, shape, size, and orientation to the airflow
 Earth Atmosphere
• Atomic oxygen
• Oxidation
• Spacecraft materials exposed to atomic oxygen experience breakdown
or “rusting” of their surfaces, which can eventually weaken
components, change their thermal characteristics, and degrade sensor
performance
 Earth Atmosphere
• Vacuum
• Out-gassing—release of gasses from spacecraft materials
• Cold welding—fusing together of metal components
• Heat transfer—limited to radiation

• Out-gassing
• Some materials used in their construction, especially composites, such as
graphite/epoxy, can trap tiny bubbles of gas while under atmospheric pressure.
When this pressure is released in the vacuum of space, the gasses begin to escape.
This release of trapped gasses in a vacuum is called out-gassing
• The gasses can coat delicate sensors, such as lenses or cause electronic components
to arc, damaging them.
 Earth Atmosphere
• Cold welding
• Cold welding occurs between mechanical parts that have very little separation
between them
• They may expose one part to the Sun and the other to shade so that differential
heating causes the parts to expand and contract, respectively, allowing them to
separate
 Earth Atmosphere
• Heat transfer
• Conduction is heat flow directly from one point to another through a
medium.
• Convection takes place when gravity, wind, or some other force moves a
liquid or gas over a hot surface, Heat transfers from the surface to the fluid
• Radiation does not need any solid of fluid medium
 Micrometeoroids and Space Junk
• The environment near Earth is getting full of this space debris (about 2200 tons
of it)
• A spacecraft in low orbit is now more likely to hit a piece of junk than a piece of
natural material.
• In low-Earth orbit, this tiny chunk is moving at fantastic speeds—7000 m/s or
greater when it hits
• During Space Shuttle Mission in 1983, a paint flake only 0.2 mm (0.008 in.) in
diameter hit the Challenger window, making a crater 4 mm (0.16 in.) wide and
cost more than $50,000 to repair.
• Proposed solutions have been primarily technological or managerial.
• Technological fixes include removing space debris from orbit with nets, harpoons, or lasers
• Managerial fix includes Deorbiting a satellite at the end of its life
 Radiation Environment
• Heating on exposed surfaces
• Degradation or damage to surfaces and electronic components
• Solar pressure

• Useful Effect
• Visible light hitting the spacecraft solar panels generates electric power
through solar cells
 Radiation Environment
• Heating on exposed surfaces
• Electronics in a spacecraft need to operate at about normal room
temperature
• In some cases, the Sun’s thermal energy can help to warm electronic
components. In other cases, this solar input—in addition to the heat
generated onboard from the operation of electronic components—can
make the spacecraft too hot.
• Prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation can begin to degrade
spacecraft coatings
 Radiation Environment
• Solar Pressure
• Solar pressure is much, much smaller than drag.
• In fact, it’s only about 5 N of force (about one pound) for a square
kilometer of surface (one-third square mile). While that may not sound
like much, over time this solar pressure can disturb the orientation of
spacecraft, causing them to point in the wrong direction.
 Charged Particles
• Sources
• The solar wind and flares
• Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs)
• The Van Allen radiation belts
 Charged Particles
• The Sun puts out a stream of charged particles (protons and electrons) as
part of the solar wind—at a rate of 1 × 109 kg/s. During intense solar
flares, the number of particles ejected can increase dramatically
 Charged Particles
• High-energy particles from Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs)
• GCRs represent the solar wind from distant stars, the remnants of
exploded stars, or, perhaps, from the “Big Bang” explosion that created the
Universe
• GCRs are much more massive and energetic than particles of solar origin
 Charged Particles
• Magnetosphere
• The solar wind’s charged particles and the GCRs form streams which hit
Earth’s magnetic field
 Charged Particles
• The point of contact between the solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field is
the shock front or bow shock
• As the solar wind bends around Earth’s magnetic field, it stretches out the
field lines along with it.
• Inside the shock front, the point of contact between the charged particles
of the solar wind and the magnetic field lines is the Magnetopause and the
area directly behind the Earth is the Magnetotail.
• As the solar wind interacts with Earth’s magnetic field, some highenergy
particles get trapped and concentrated between field lines. These areas of
concentration are the Van Allen radiation belts.
 Charged Particles
• Charging
• Sputtering
• Single-event phenomenon

• Spacecraft charging results when charges build up on different parts of a

spacecraft as it moves through concentrated areas of charged particles.
Once this charge builds up, discharge can occur with disastrous effects—
damage to surface coatings, degrading of solar panels, loss of power, or
switching off or permanently damaging electronics
 Charged Particles
• Sputtering
• Sometimes, these charged particles trapped by the magnetosphere interact
with Earth’s atmosphere in a dazzling display called the Northern Lights
or Aurora Borealis
• These particles can also damage a spacecraft’s surface because of their
high speed. It’s as if they were “sand blasting” the spacecraft. We refer to
this as sputtering. Over a long time, sputtering can damage a spacecraft’s
thermal coatings and sensors
 Charged Particles
• It’s difficult for us to prevent these random impacts. Spacecraft shielding
offers some protection, but spacecraft operators must be aware of the
possibility of these events and know how to recover the spacecraft should
they occur.