Charging and the cross-field discharge during electron accelerator operation on a rocket
Preliminary results are presented from experiments to study the neutralization processes around an electron beam emitting rocket. The rocket, SCEX II, was flown on January 31, 1987 from Alaska, with a payload consisting of two independent electron accelerators and two arms with conducting elements to act as Langmuir probes and to measure floating potentials. It was expected that electrons in the strong electric fields around the charged rocket would gain sufficient energy to ionize neutrals, producing ions which would be hurled outward at energies up to the rocket potential. Three hemispherical retarding potential analyzers were ejected from the main payload to measure these ions. The measurements show that fields sufficient to accelerate electrons to ionizing energies were present around the rocket.