A study of electromagnetic environmental effects on space launch systems by means of reverberation chamber

As a part of the environment met by a launcher during the ascent phase and during the on orbitoperations, the electromagnetic radiation (EM) can interact with space systems. Such an interactioncan affect the on board operations with negative response on the systems. It seems so necessary toprotect the complex systems on the launcher from the EM radiation. The protections have to be properlydesigned to limit the amount of interference to sensitive systems such antennas and electronic devices.In fact launch ranges often presents numerous radio transmitters, which can be potential threats tocommunications and telemetry systems and also to electro-initiated devices, such as squibs or explosivebolts. In this frame an assessment of the radio frequency environment is mandatory. Protection systemsare nowadays commonly used on stages of launchers and on nozzles as well against vacuum, vibrationsand thermal-mechanical stresses. The same protection systems could be used in order to protect therespective items and their internal sensitive electronic devices against EM radiation. The ReverberationChamber is a new methodology that can be used to study the Electromagnetic behavior of materialssubdue to an electromagnetic environment in the radiofrequency range. In such a test system differentprotection components, used in different environmental conditions as launch, ascent, staging and orbiting,and thus built in different ways, can be studied, evaluating their Absorption Cross Section (ACS), that isthe capability of a material to absorb or reflect EM waves. The use of composite materials can be helpfulto face EM protection problems in particular, EM shielding capability if structures , and also hybridcomposite materials with a layered structure of metal and composites could be of great interest in suchan application. In this paper a numerical and experimental approach to the protection problem, by meanof Reverberation Chamber is proposed