Current collection by a highly positive body moving in the ionospheric plasma

In this paper we derive an interesting feature of the space charge region surrounding a positively charged body moving in a magnetoplasma and, precisely, the fact that, for potentials of the body in excess of a certain value, at least in an inner region close to the body, the electron collection (and the structure of the self-consistent potential) is isotropic. This is used to derive current-voltage characteristics for such a situation. These theoretical characteristics are then convincingly compared with those obtained from the analysis of the data obtained during the recently flown TSS-1R mission.