ESD-triggered sustaining discharges between wires for space use in vacuum

The anomaly of Japanese satellite ADEOS-II appeared in 2003 is supposed to be caused by arcing discharges initiated due to ESD in the bundled wire-harness of the solar paddle. In order to make the conditions of the occurrence of the discharge clear, it is necessary to evaluate the arcing discharge characteristics in vacuum quantitatively. Therefore we tried to investigate the characteristics of the discharges between two exposed conductors of a pair of insulating wires for space use. The characteristics were obtained as parameters of the pressure in the chamber, the amplitude and the direction of the current flowing in the conductor and so on. We obtained the result that the arcing discharge time is nearly constant to the pressure and is affected by the magnetic field formed between the conductors by the current itself flowing in the conductor.