ABSTRACT
Spacecraft charging is a major environmental concern for the spacecraft design community and can take many forms. This chapter reviews the basic characteristics of all these forms of spacecraft charging and discusses their effects, addresses the role of the space weather in affecting charging, and briefly indicates the methods for limiting the effects of charging on spacecraft systems. However, it is important to remember that it is ultimately the extremes of the space weather and the plasma and the energetic particles it energizes that are the sources of spacecraft charging effects. Fortunately, with the continuing growth in computing speed, a number of spacecraft charging problems at low altitudes are, for the first time, yielding to numerical analysis. The low-altitude charging problem is best represented by the movement of a body through dense, cool ionospheric plasma. Surface charging continues to be recognized as a serious operational threat to spacecraft, but useful design guidelines are in place for its mitigation.
