A Study of Solar Orbiter Spacecraft–Plasma Interactions Effects on Electric Field and Particle Measurements

Stanislas Guillemant (1, 2) , Milan Maksimovic (1) , Alain Hilgers (3) , Filippo Pantellini (1) , Lamy Laurent (1) , Philippe Louarn (2) , Vincent Génot (2) , Christopher L. Owens (4) , Jean-Charles Mateo-Velez (5) , Pierre Sarrailh (5) , Sébastien L.G. Hess (5) , Antonio Vecchio (1)

1 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
2 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
3 ESTEC - European Space Research and Technology Centre
4 MSSL, UCL
5 ONERA - The French Aerospace Lab [Toulouse]

We present numerical simulations of the Solar Orbiter spacecraft (SC)/plasma interaction performed with the SC–plasma interaction system software. Solar orbiter, to be launched in 2019, is dedicated to observe the sun and the solar wind. The SC will be equipped with both in situ and remote sensing instruments and will approach the sun as close as 0.28 AU. The whole SC will be subjected to an intense electromagnetic radiation flux (ten times that at the earth) leading to specific thermal and SC–plasma interactions issues. This paper investigates plasma interaction effects with two instruments: the radio and plasma waves and the electron analyzer system.

Mots clés: AEROSPACE SIMULATION; ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES; ASTROPHYSICS; ELECTRIC POTENTIAL; ELECTROSTATIC MEASUREMENTS; PLASMA MEASUREMENTS; PLASMA SIMULATION; SPACE EXPLORATION

Domaines: Physique de l'espace [physics.space-ph]; Physique des plasmas [physics.plasm-ph]

Stanislas Guillemant, Milan Maksimovic, Alain Hilgers, Filippo Pantellini, Lamy Laurent, et al.. A Study of Solar Orbiter Spacecraft–Plasma Interactions Effects on Electric Field and Particle Measurements. IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, 2017, 45 (9), page 2578-2587. ⟨10.1109/TPS.2017.2731054⟩. ⟨hal-01706575⟩