Review of recent advances in research studies of spacecraft charging phenomena

An extensive review of the literature dealing with the diverse approaches in modeling of space charge behavior of dielectric materials, the methods of mitigation the effects of spacecraft charging, and some concepts on harvesting a power from the space environment showed that no substantial work exists that comprehensively analyzes the charge behavior dielectric-based nanocomposites. A majority of the proposed models make assumptions such as effects of interface between the matrix and embedded nanofillers, aggregation and agglomeration influence on the electrical, thermophysical and mechanical properties of the dielectric-based nanocomposite. There are no model and experimental studies on the space charge behavior of the dielectric materials with two-compound nanofillers, such as metal atom clusters doped nanoparticles. Therefore, the review show that there is a need for a more comprehensive models and experimental works which will consider some of the effects which were ignored in previous studies. Also, it is necessary to develop electrical and thermomechanical models to predict a behavior of dielectric materials with two-compound nanofillers and their experimental verifications in space charge simulating environment.