Satellite Failure: Environmental Causes & Triggers

[Tone L]

I was thinking this past morning of the challenger explosion due to the stiff and cold failed O-rings in the fuel segments.

I was trying to think of satellite failures, I couldn't find too much...

Do you all know of satellite (components, instruments, etc) failures that occurred while in orbit due to environmental issues, that trigged many parts to fail because of thermal or radiation causes?

 

[russ_watters]

Google finds this:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/245139911_A_study_of_on-orbit_ spacecraft _failures/link/5d36154da6fdcc370a576c9c/download

 

[Astronuc]

AIAA probably has numerous reports/papers on the subject.
For example - Tabulation of Power-Related Satellite Failure Causes (2013)
https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2013-3736

Solid state electronics may eventually failure due to ionizing radiation. There are multiple ways satellites can failure.
https://www.captechu.edu/blog/hazards-of-space-how-satellite-missions-can-go-wrong
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR500/RR560/RAND_RR560.pdf

NASA also has a program - Spacecraft System Failures and Anomalies Attributed to the Natural Space Environment - http://www.dept.aoe.vt.edu/~cdhall/courses/aoe4065/NASADesignSPs/rp1390.pdf
The primary focus is to present more than 100 case histories of spacecraft failures andanomalies documented from 1974 through 1994 attributed to the natural space environment.

A study of on-orbit spacecraft failures,https://www.researchgate.net/journal/Acta-Astronautica-0094-5765Acta Astronautica 64(2):195-205, February 2009
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576508003019 (available for purchase possibly through one's university library)
DOI: https://www.researchgate.net/deref/http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1016%2Fj.actaastro.2008.07.019

The Impact of Space Radiation Environment on Satellites Operation in Near-Earth Space (2019)
https://www.intechopen.com/books/sa...t-on-satellites-operation-in-near-earth-space

Spacecraft failures
https://engineering.purdue.edu/DELP...from_the_perspective_of_decision_making_0.pdf

 

[MisterX]

A number of satellites failed due to problems with the reaction wheel systems which help control attitude. It has been proposed that this may be due to solar radiation causing arcing in the bearings.

A newly discovered branch of the fault tree explaining systemic reaction wheel failures and anomalies. W Bialke; E Hansell.
https://esmats.eu/esmatspapers/pastpapers/pdfs/2017/bialke.pdf