Three-dimensional Simulation of Surface Charging in Meteorite Craters on Rotating Asteroids

TL;DR

This paper uses neural network and finite element simulations to analyze how crater shape, location, and solar wind conditions affect surface charging on rotating asteroids, impacting future space missions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel simulation approach considering complex terrain factors to study asteroid surface charging under various conditions.

Findings

Potential variation at crater floors stabilizes near -3V at poles.

Deep craters show different charging behavior depending on solar wind incidence angle.

Large craters experience significant potential decreases during solar storms.

Abstract

Meteorite craters on the asteroid surface obstruct the horizontal flow of solar wind, forming a plasma wake that modulates the particle fluxes and the electrostatic environment far downstream. In this study, surface charging properties of asteroids with nontrivial terrain are simulated based on neural network and the finite element method. Key factors such as the location, size and depth-to-width ratio of craters are all considered. Under normal conditions, as the latitude of the crater increases, the potential variation at its floor during a rotation gradually becomes smoother, finally stabilizing around -3V with minor fluctuations as the crater approaches the poles. For craters with a depth-to-width ratio greater than 0.5, because of the diverging motions of electrons and the less deflected trajectories of ions, completely different charging results are observed under parallel and perpendicular solar wind incidence, the potential around the crater floor decreases and increases with the rising depth-to-width ratio, respectively. While the surface potential appears indifferent to changes in crater size, only during solar storms, the floor of large-scale craters, such as those with a diameter of 800m, perform a 9.13V decrease in potential compared to small craters of 50m. Both studies of localized plasma flow field and the surface charging phenomenon of asteroids have substantial influence on the future safe landing and exploration missions.