Welcome to this edition of The Intelligence Brief… This week, scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have uncovered the phenomenon behind sudden spacecraft failures in orbit, long a mystery to engineers and mission planners. In our analysis, we’ll be looking at 1) how electrical discharges onboard satellites—known as spacecraft environment discharges (SEDs)—are now shown to correlate with electron activity in orbit, 2) the historic incidents where SEDs have crippled communications satellites in the wake of solar storms, 3) how new data from the Department of Defense’s STP-Sat6 mission revealed hundreds of discharge events tied to electron peaks, and 4) why the discovery could lead to predictive monitoring systems that protect future spacecraft from catastrophic failures.
Quote of the Week
“We haven’t understood the relationship between the electrons in the space environment and SEDs.”
– Amitabh Nag, Los Alamos Scientist
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Los Alamos Scientists Tackle Sudden Spacecraft Failures in Orbit
Scientists at Los Alamos National Labs have made a discovery that finally reveals the phenomenon behind the sudden, often perplexing failure of spacecraft in Earth’s orbit.
Over the decades, several occurrences of unexplained failure of electronics onboard satellites orbiting above Earth have led to speculations about what electrical forces could account for the unusual incidents.
Now, researchers behind a new study have revealed that the number of electrical discharges occurring on these spacecraft correlates perfectly with the number of electrons in their surrounding environment, a discovery that could greatly aid scientists in understanding how we can better shield equipment onboard spacecraft from these abrupt electrical disturbances.
Spacecraft Environment Discharges
The phenomena behind these incidents, known as spacecraft environment discharges (SEDs), involve short, sudden electrical breakdowns that, when they erupt, can quickly cause significant damage to the electronics and communications systems onboard a range of spacecraft, including satellites.
In the past, examples of this include a pair of Canadian television satellites which, over the course of just a few hours in 1994, failed in the immediate aftermath of a massive solar storm. Electrostatic discharges following the outburst of solar radiation led to a complete disruption of the electronic systems on these satellites, showcasing how quickly and easily space weather phenomena can impact satellites used for communication and a range of other services.
“We’ve long known that these SEDs exist,” said Los Alamos scientist Amitabh Nag, the lead author of a study that details the team’s research. Now, based on the team’s findings, it is believed that these sudden failures, which number in the hundreds to date, are believed to be caused by SEMs.
“We haven’t understood the relationship between the electrons in the space environment and SEDs,” Nag elaborated. “To do that, we needed two sensors on a single spacecraft: one that looked at the number and activity of electrons, and another that looked at the radio frequency signal.”
Sudden Discharges in Space
Under most circumstances, SEDs are caused by surface charging resulting from the accumulation of electrons on the surface of satellites and other spacecraft as they move through orbit.
Similar to how static electricity causes a charge to build up on items resulting from friction on Earth that can sometimes result in an electrical spark, the discharges that occur in space are caused by energy that accumulates until a discharge—and in some cases a powerful one—is released.
To test this scenario as the underlying cause behind sudden electrical failures on board satellites, the Los Alamos team relied on the sensors on board STP-Sat6, a U.S. Department of Defense satellite, which gave them a unique opportunity to examine electron activity and also issues related to radio frequency emissions.
Peak Electron Activity
“We were able to see the rate of SEDs reported by the radio frequency sensor and compare it to the activity of electron particles within a certain voltage range,” Nag said in a statement.
“What we learned was that the peaks in SEDs correlated to peaks in electron activity,” he added, noting that data spanning the last twelve months from STP-Sat6’s sensors revealed several hundred cases where surges in electrons had been detected.
About 75% of the time, these electron peak periods occurred anywhere from around a half hour to 45 minutes before known SED events, indicating that such electron accumulations are directly linked to electrostatic discharges that disrupt equipment aboard satellites.
Based on the team’s findings, Nag says future space missions may be able to incorporate monitoring systems that will help to detect—and potentially even predict—when sudden spacecraft electronics systems are likely to be in danger of failure as a result of SED events.
That concludes this week’s installment of The Intelligence Brief. You can read past editions of our newsletter at our website, or if you found this installment online, don’t forget to subscribe and get future email editions from us here. Also, if you have a tip or other information you’d like to send along directly to me, you can email me at micah [@] thedebrief [dot] org, or reach me on X: @MicahHanks.
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