A Method of Measuring the Total DC Electric Field in the Vicinity of a Spacecraft Using Artificially Injected Charged Particles

摘要

A method of measuring both the perpendicular and parallel dc electric field in the vicinity of a spacecraft using artificially injected charged particles is presented. The method uses a rendezvous between the spacecraft and injected particles after a number of complete gyrations around the magnetic field plus one partial gyration in order to measure the field and potential structure at short distances from the spacecraft. The characteristics of the measurements are evaluated with emphasis on the echo delay time of the particles and the sensitivity. The requirements for guns and detectors are assessed including their orientation, the beam intensity, and the detector time resolution and sensitivity.