Hi all, I think the spinning spacecraft transition is very buggy. The simulation I’ve set up can be approximated to a rotating cylinder, with a significant area. It is impossible to look at this spacecraft from any angle and not see ≈ 1 m^2 cross-sectional surface area. I believe the plasma flow update is correct, but whatever is calculating the sun flux to this spacecraft and prompting this line:
new photo-electron flux from surface
and then a value in m^2. is doing some bullshit. Some of these values drop to insanely low values:
Spinning spacecraft, angle vs initial direction : -1.5707963745065723 rad (-90.0 degree) calculated for time : 1.0 s
Sun flux updater is turned on from global sun direction
and photo-emission is re-initialized from global sun directionnew photo-electron flux from surface1.8437263E-10m2
with photo-electron dynamics simulation (PIC)
maximal potential induced by the v cross b field on spacecraft surface : 0.0V
minimal potential induced by the v cross b field on spacecraft surface : 0.0V
Population distribution function basis updated for ions1. Xp = (-4.771167600586823E-8, 0.0, 0.9999999999999989), Yp = (0.0, 1.0, 0.0), Zp = (-0.9999999999999989, 0.0, -4.771167600586823E-8),
Population distribution function basis updated for elec1. Xp = (-4.771167600586823E-8, 0.0, 0.9999999999999989), Yp = (0.0, 1.0, 0.0), Zp = (-0.9999999999999989, 0.0, -4.771167600586823E-8),
Population distribution function basis updated for photoElec. Xp = (-4.771167600586823E-8, 0.0, 0.9999999999999989), Yp = (0.0, 1.0, 0.0), Zp = (-0.9999999999999989, 0.0, -4.771167600586823E-8),
For a while, I thought SPIS was just ignoring my spin axis and opting to go to the default, but with this result, we can finally conclude that is not the case. The emitted currents 3D plots are very strange as well, and as you can imagine, the charging of the spacecraft depends on this photoemission and fluctuates wildly even when spinning around the y-axis.
The full project is here, shared for a limited time. Tested on SPIS 6.2.6, windows. But also on Linux SPIS 6.2.4.