Spacecraft Charging Modeling - NASCAP-2K 2013 Annual Report

Abstract : In support of the larger goal to provide a plasma engineering capability to the spacecraft community, the objective of the Spacecraft Charging Modeling Nascap-2k contract is to develop, incorporate, test, and validate new algorithms for the three-dimensional plasma-environment spacecraft interactions computational tool, Nascap-2k. Nascap-2k is being modified to extend the range of plasma physics phenomena that the code can simulate, make the advanced code capabilities more accessible to users, and improve and maintain both the graphical and non-graphical interfaces to the code. The upgraded code is being used to simulate problems of interest to AFRL. During the second year, Nascap-2k 4.1 was modified to automatically create macroparticles at surfaces and optionally use them to computer currents to surfaces using the reverse trajectory technique. Tools were developed to write a script for a rotating spacecraft and to read a COLISEUM plume file. The upgraded code was used to support the DSX (Demonstration and Science eXperiments) and AEHF-2 (Advanced Extremely High Frequency) spacecraft programs and the AFRL project to develop a differential charging index.