On the rocket interaction with ionospheric plasma; study by numerical simulations

Interaction of plasma with finite-sized objects is one of the central problems in the physics of plasmas. An example is a sounding rocket in the Earth´s ionosphere. A rocket, like any other spacecraft, will be electrically charged by the plasma, photoemission, and other currents. With respect to the surrounding plasma, the rocket will be at floating potential, at which net current to its surface vanishes (E.C. Whipple, Rep. Prog. Phys, 44, 1981, p.1197). The plasma flow will break the symmetry of charging, and the resulting wake can influence the performance of the payload instruments, such as Langmuir probes. The spin of the rocket will further complicate the problem.