How does electricity 'earth' in space?

Question

I was having one of those bazaar 'keep me awake cause we're driving late' chats with the kids and it ended up with this question. We were talking about how oxygen causes explosions, but not in space!

Answer 1

Static electricity most certainly exists in space.  Static electricity is simply the build-up of electrons, creating an overall negative electrical charge.

On the lunar surface, static was a big problem.  It caused lunar dust to cling to space suits and camera lenses, and caused the sample bags to cling as well.  That charge comes from shuffling across the lunar surface.

In orbital space, static comes from the solar wind and from interactions with the magnetosphere, both of which deposit electrons on spacecraft structures.  The problem comes when that charge on one part of the spacecraft discharges violently to another portion.  It's not that big a deal if some parts of a spacecraft build up a slight charge, so long as it's the part intended by its designers to do that.

"Earthing" (or "grounding" in American terminology) means simply the equalization of the charge between some object and its environment.  Ordinarily on Earth static electricity that we build up by shuffling and rubbing against things is discharged to the atmosphere.  In space, especially on spacecraft, there's no medium to dissipate the charge.  Hence most spacecraft design principles are aimed and preventing the charge from building up.

A curious thing happens.  As the spacecraft skin aquires electrons, it soon begins to repel additional ones:  like charges repel.  So there is a natural limit to how charged a spacecraft can become.  Keep the skin from discharging to more sensitve internal components, by means of insulation, and you're well on your way to a static-free mission.

Another curious thing happens when certain materials are exposed to sunlight:  they give off electrons -- the so-called photoelectric effect.  This lets you put a panel of such materials on the sun-facing side of the spacecraft and connect it electrically to the skin (which you've engineered to limit its build-up), and you have a sort of "earth" -- a place for electrons to go.

But most engineering efforts are based on limiting the charge build-up and preventing it from discharging to sensitive parts.

Answer 2

i have to hand it to you... i've seen some questions that made no sense before, but this one has got to be one of the top runner ups

Answer 3

Bizarre. A bazaar is a place where people buy things.

No connection to the Earth needs to exist in order for electricity to work. In an electrical circuit, the 'earth', or 'ground' is simply a common connection point that provides a path for any excess electrons to flow through. In the car you were driving (which is insulated from the Earth by its tires), that path is just the frame of the vehicle, and I assume it's done the same way aboard the shuttles and the space station, as well as orbitting satellites.

Answer 4

its virtually impossible for static,oxygen and gravity to exist in space...

its a scientific sorta thing that happens in space but not on earth really...

Answer 5

it doesn't exist in space there is no way to generate static in space