The Gaseous and Plasma Environment Around Space Shuttle

Abstract : A versatile ion/neutral quadrupole mass spectrometer was designed and developed in-house by the Composition Branch of the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory to measure the gaseous and plasma environment around the Space Shuttle. This report briefly describes the instrumentation, the various modes of operation, the data acquisition program and then presents some of the data obtained while operating in the neutral and ion modes. Measurements are presented of thruster firings, water dumps, energetic backscatter phenomena, the temporal behavior of contaminants, the plasma environment's modification by contaminants, ionospheric irregularities and vehicle potential measurements.