CHARGING ANALYSIS OF ENGINEERING TEST SATELLITE VIII (ETS-VIII) OF JAPAN

Large-scale geostationary satellite, ETS-VIII, is planned to be launched in 2003. As solar array panel with high voltage (100V) bus is introduced to ETS-VIII, the effect of spacecraft charging due to space plasma should be considered. Therefore, we conducted the charging analysis of ETS-VIII by using NASCAP/GEO. The maximum potential difference of about 2.9kV on the solar array panel of ETS-VIII was obtained in the worst space environment condition from the analysis. Although the potential of 2.9kV is possible to cause discharge, the influence to the satellite is thought to be small.