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More Spacecraft Shielding Backfired in Solar Maximum

A modeled LISA-like system gained charged-particle stopping events as aluminum mass rose.

Published Updated Story ID: mp-2026-09-22-012
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Summary

A modeled LISA-like system gained charged-particle stopping events as aluminum mass rose.

Spacecraft structure can stop incoming particles, but it can also create secondary particles. A LISA-like charging analysis found that increasing surrounding aluminum from 16 to 24 grams per square centimeter reduced the stopping-proton population by 2.3% at solar minimum while increasing it by 17.0% at solar maximum, within the reported uncertainties. A first-order projection put the corresponding net charging-rate changes near minus 2% and plus 11%. The result is a modeled design tradeoff for precision test masses, not a measured failure of a flown spacecraft.

Why it matters

A modeled LISA-like system gained charged-particle stopping events as aluminum mass rose.

Limits and context

  • The result is a modeled design tradeoff for precision test masses, not a measured failure of a flown spacecraft.

Key claims

  1. A modeled LISA-like system gained charged-particle stopping events as aluminum mass rose.

    Qualification: The result is a modeled design tradeoff for precision test masses, not a measured failure of a flown spacecraft.

    Evidence: source-2026-09-22-012

Sources

  1. arXiv preprint 2609.24851arXiv · primary research

Corrections

No corrections have been recorded for this story.