Abstract:
To develop low Earth orbit (LEO) atomic oxygen (AO) sensor and conduct on-orbit monitoring of the AO environment is of significance for the design and protection of LEO spacecraft. Carbon film AO sensors based on the method of resistance analysis have been widely used at home and abroad due to their long working hours, good linearity, and no contamination. In this article, to achieve better AO on-orbit monitoring, a rectangular carbon film AO sensor was designed. An approximately 2.5 μm thick AO-sensitive carbon film was prepared by cathode arc discharge. The performance of the sensor was tested in a ground-based AO simulator. The morphologies of the carbon film before and after AO exposure were characterized. The testing results show that the ratio
R0/
R referring the initial resistance of the sensor film against its in-situ measured resistance during AO exposure possesses a good linear relationship with the AO fluence
F. According to the results, it can be inferred that the maximum AO detectable fluence for the sensor is approximately 2.29×10
21 atom·cm
-2.
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