Accomplishment of Multi-Utility Spacecraft Charging Analysis Tool (MUSCAT) and its Future Evolution

Paper number

IAC-07-C2.I.14

Author

Dr. Shinji Hatta, MUSCAT Space Engineering, Japan

Coauthor

Dr. Takanobu Muranaka, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)/ISAS, Japan

Coauthor

Dr. Jeongho Kim, MUSCAT Space Engineering, Japan

Coauthor

Dr. Satoshi Hosoda, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)/ISAS, Japan

Coauthor

Mr. Kouichirou Ikeda, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan

Coauthor

Ms. Naomi Kurahara, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan

Coauthor

Prof. Mengu Cho, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan

Coauthor

Dr. Hiroko Ueda, Japan

Coauthor

Dr. Kiyokazu Koga, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISTA/JAXA), Japan

Coauthor

Dr. Tateo Goka, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan

Year

2007

Abstract

MUSCAT is a high value computation tool to analyze spacecraft-plasma interaction, whose typical example is charging-arching issue, corresponding to spacecrafts in LEO, GEO and PEO. 
JAXA and Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT) started the development as a joint project in November, 2004 and the final version of MUSCAT was released in March, 2007. 
The final version includes many important features to simulate spacecraft-plasma interaction and the features can be separated into four parts. The first part is its GUI named “Vineyard”. By using Vineyard, MUSCAT users can build a satellite model including not only its geometry but also material properties of the surface. As for the second part, MUSCAT includes many kinds of effects derived from space plasma environment as well as electrical functions of spacecraft. For the third part, MUSCAT can work on parallel workstation with multi-CPU. The last feature is that the computation result by MUSCAT was thoroughly validated by experiments in plasma chamber. The numerical result shows very good agreement with the code validation experiment. 
We also conducted trial computation of charging analysis on Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) with MUSCAT. One purpose of the computation was prediction of charging status of GOSAT for the real satellite design in combination with the ground test. The other is performance assessment of MUSCAT. 
After the joint project, expansion and maintenance of MUSCAT will be carried out by ‘MUSCAT Space Engineering Ltd’ which is a new enterprise made of the development team. In future we will try to conduct MUSCAT computation for various spacecrafts and also try to add useful function such as 3D CAD compatibility.

Abstract document

IAC-07-C2.I.14.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-07-C2.I.14.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.