Space Environment and its Effects on Orbital Spacecrafts

Week 1: Introduction to Space Environment and Spacecraft Interactions

Lecture 1:Space environment, its types and weather definition, anatomy of Sun, Solar activities as space weather driver
Lecture 2:Solar wind, solar flare, coronal mass ejection, solar energetic particles event.
Lecture 3:Co-rotating Interaction regions, interplanetary magnetic field (IMF).
Lecture 4:Coupling of solar wind to earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere, geomagnetic storm and substorm, geomagnetic indices.
Lecture 5:Earth’s radiation belt, and ring current, south Atlantic anomaly.
Week 2:Satellite system and its orbit:

Lecture 6:Different types of earth’s orbit for useful satellite applications like LEO, MEO and GEO/GSO, HEO, PEO.
Lecture 7:Space environment at different earth’s orbits and the applications of the artificial satellites at different orbital altitudes.
Lecture 8:Satellite space segments 1; Mechanical main frames 1; structures, thermal control system.
Lecture 9:Satellite space segments 1; Mechanical main frames 1; structures, thermal control system.
Lecture 10:Electrical main frames 2; Altitude and orbit control system, station keeping, TT and C, payloads
Week 3:Satellite system:

Lecture 11:Earth segments 1; Receive-Only Home TV Systems, Transmit-Receive Earth Stations.
Lecture 12:Earth segments 2;Important subsystems of a typical satellite earth station and Important considerations for satellite operations.

The vacuum spacecraft environment:

Lecture 13:Characteristics of vacuum environment, heat transfer mechanisms in vacuum and its implication of spacecraft thermal design and challenges.
Lecture 14:UV radiation exposure of satellites and its effects, out-gassing effects of spacecraft materials, definition of TML, CVCM, WVR and its’ significance.
Lecture 15:Ground Simulation of vacuum environment, thermo-vacuum chamber, thermo-vacuum test philosophy, Characterization of TML, CVCM and WVR.
Week 4:

Lecture 16:Material selection, design guidelines and mitigation techniques for vacuum environment.

The neutral environment 1

Lecture 17:Neutral gas flow around a spacecraft, earth’s atmosphere, pressure, density and temperature variation with altitude.
Lecture 18:Planetary atmospheres, aerodynamic force; contamination, erosion by atomic oxygen, spacecraft glow.
Lecture 19:Particle impacts on spacecraft, scattering of EM radiation from particles.
Lecture 20:The physics of macroscopic particles, cometary, meteoroids, asteroidal meteors.
Week 5:

Lecture 21:Spacecraft induced neutral Environments,Spacecraft outgassing; chemical thrusters.
Lecture 22:Space debris, its types, space debris management, monitoring, detection and capturing methods.
Lecture 23:Simulation, modeling and mitigation techniques for effects neutral environment.

Plasma Environment 1:

Lecture 24:Basic charged Particle Motion in Constant Electric and Magnetic Fields, gyro-radius, cyclotron frequency.
Lecture 25:ExB drift, Debye shielding, plasma frequency, magnetic mirroring.
Week 6:Plasma Environment 2:

Lecture 26:Geomagnetic storm/substorm and the external and disturbance fields
Lecture 27:Plasma environment in low earth orbit and polar orbits and interaction with spacecrafts
Lecture 28:The geosynchronous orbit plasma environment; spacecraft-plasma interactions.
Lecture 29:The physics of spacecraft charging, spacecraft potential.
Lecture 30:Spacecraft surface charging, absolute charging, differential charging
Week 7:Plasma Environment 3

Lecture 31:General probe theory: the thin-sheath limit, the thick-sheath limit, spacecraft potentials, Langmuir probe.
Lecture 32:Spacecraft as a Langmuir Probe, Current Collection in spherical, cylindrical and plane geometry
Lecture 33:Energy distribution of plasma species, Single Maxwellian and double Maxwellian distribution, Spacecraft charging in a Maxwellian plasma
Lecture 34:Current from the ambient plasma, photoelectric currents, backscattered and secondary electrons.
Lecture 35:Current balance equation, computation of spacecraft built-up potential.
Week 8:Plasma Environment 3

Lecture 36:Effect of magnetic fields on current collection, artificial current and charge sources.
Lecture 37:Space Tethers, Plasma Contactors, and Sheath Ionization.
Lecture 38:Electrostatic Discharges on Spacecraft: Location of discharges on spacecraft, differential charging, electromagnetic Interference.
Lecture 39:Bulk or internal spacecraft charging: high-energyelectron and ion fluxes, penetration of high-energy charges into materials, properties of dielectrics, avalanche ionization in a high electric field.
Lecture 40:Satellite anomalies due to spacecraft charging, modelling, simulation and testing.
Week 9:Plasma Environment 4

Lecture 41:Design guide lines and mitigation techniques against spacecraft charging

Radiation environment 1

Lecture 42:Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic radiation at radio frequencies, visible and infrared, UV, EUV, and X-rays;
Lecture 43:Energetic particle radiation; trapped radiation, cosmic rays, Solar proton events.
Lecture 44:Radiation belts, radiation belt electron population, nominal electron belt structure and dynamics, solar wind drivers of radiation belt dynamics
Lecture 45:Radiation interactions with matter, single-particle interactions, photon interactions, charged-particle interactions, neutron interactions.
Week 10:Radiation environment 2

Lecture 46:Space radiation risks to astronauts, case studies of ISS
Lecture 47:Effects on spacecrafts, Single event effects, total ionization dose, displacement damage.
Lecture 48:Radiation charging of dielectric materials, physics ofradiation-Induced charging, radiation-induced bulk dischargesLecture 49:Modeling, Simulation, and Testing


Week 11:Radiation environment 3

Lecture 50:Coupling, victim, spacecraft radiation hardening
Lecture 51:Test and evaluation, design guidelines, material selection, wiring and cable shields and their bonding
Lecture 52:Spacecraft radiation hardening, Radiation Hardness Assurance
Lecture 53:Design guidelines and mitigation techniques for the effects of radiation environment.

Risk assessment, reliability 1

Lecture 54:Failures Caused by the Space Environment, a review of different space missions anomalies
Lecture 55:Risk assessment and management, general guidelines for risk assessment
Week 12:Risk assessment, reliability 2

Lecture 56:Reliability and Quality Assurance, Parts reliability
Lecture 57:Satellite system availability

Mission planning, Spacecraft operations and safety

Lecture 58:Space mission drivers, different considerations of mission planning
Lecture 59:Spacecraft operations: fault management systems
Lecture 60:Autonomy in spacecraft operations, different approaches