3. Effect of particles of various size and composition on operation of SPS and other satellites; and 4. Possible methods of control of particulates should they turn out to be a problem. They also point out that very little information is available on items 1 and 3 above. One problem of interest, since it is closely related to Vondrak’s concern with influences on terrestrial climate, is the accumulation of enough mass in a cloud to reduce the sunlight received by a satellite by 10Z. Douglas et al. estimate that about 4% of the SPS mass would have to be eroded away to form such a cloud. Assuming that surface erosion by meteoroids and sputtering (removal by charged particle impact) are the two main source of small particles, they estimate that perhaps in 10 years that amount of matter could be ejected into the satellite environment, but they go on to say that the ejecta would emerge with an angular distribution that would make an accumulation dense enough above the light collecting surface to obscure a significant fraction of the sunlight highly unlikely. Nevertheless, they suggest that the production of that much material by surface erosion (-400 kg/day) seems rather large and its fate ought to be determined. Douglas et al. also suggest, on the basis of a very simple model, that the ejected material mentioned above could potentially form a meteroid belt with a density roughly 10 times that of natural plasmasphere. If that is in fact true, then such a belt could have significant influence on magnetospheric processes. Such clouds of material may come into contact with the microwave beams but they judge that to be of negligible consequence. Finally, Douglas et al. have identified three possible ways in which a satellite can influence the environment through which it travels: • Production of electromagnetic (EM) radiation, • Alteration of ambient particle distributions, and • Generation of plasma EM disturbances. These processes can have at least two possible environmental consequences according to Douglas et al.: alteration of the particle environment in the vicinity of other satellites by emission of disturbances by an SPS satellite, and production of electromagnetic interference. Consequences for the SPS itself are changes in its particle environment and in the drag
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==