Characteristics of Material Interactions With Space Environment (CHaMISEn): Toward a Data Management System for Material Properties

The modeling of the spacecraft surface interactions with space environments is accessible to everyone through integrated tools such as NASCAP, SPIS, MUSCAT, COMOVA, Systema, and a few others. These software applications target the effects of exposure to the space environment through models of material behaviors. These models require the measurements of full property sets for every material used on spacecraft in order for the software to provide the user with an accurate prediction. However, the available databanks are quite sparse and are barely sufficient to provide estimates of the level of risk undergone by the spacecraft. This lack of accurate data is directly related to the specificity of such measurements, which require long and complex experimental campaigns and are only performed in a few dedicated facilities. The cost of the full characterization of a single material is thus very high. In addition, modelers improve continuously their models, which would require re-characterizing periodically the materials. In order to ease the characterization of space materials, ONERA developed the characteristics of material interactions with the space environment (ChaMISEn) data management system. It is composed: of the ChaMISEn open-source data model for the description of the models, experimental setups, measurement data, and extracted material properties; of the COMPEx extraction software that performs the material property extraction using the metadata of the experimental setup, of the measurements and of the model; of distributed databases; and of libraries that allow connecting both experimental facilities and end-user software to the data system. We will present the ChaMISEn system as well as its integration into ongoing activities performed at ONERA. The capabilities of the system will be illustrated through the presentation of use cases related to spacecraft charging modeling.

Automated summary

The article discusses the importance and challenges of modeling spacecraft surface interactions with space environments. It introduces the ChaMISEn data management system developed by ONERA, which provides a convenient way to describe and use the characteristics of space materials. The system includes an open-source data model, extraction software, distributed databases, and libraries. The article also presents use cases related to spacecraft charging modeling to illustrate the capabilities of the system.