Lightning strikes upwards ?

Question

Is it at all possible that the ISS ,satellites or even the shuttle be struck by lightning ?

Ok.. the shuttle could be struck on the way up or down... but in space?

And what about the moon. could a lightning bolt zap the moon? what happens to lightning when it leaves our atmosphere ?

Answer 1

Lightning occurs in thunderstorms which occur in the Earth's atmosphere, so no the moon could not be struck.  Lightning does not leave the atmosphere, and the shuttle can not be struck once it leaves the atmosphere.

Answer 2

Don't think so....

Lightning is really just a big electrical spark created in the upper atmosphere.

Like all electricity it likes to go to ground, so lighting bolts will always travel earthwards.

Lightning bolts can damage buildings, that's why they have lighting rods (conductors) to channel away the energy from the bolt before it builds up enough energy to discharge.

Benjamin Franklin tried this with a kite on the end of a long damp string.  "OUCH!"

Planes are sometimes (mildly) struck by lightning and thats down to the potential difference between the planes body and the electricity in the surrounding atmosphere.

BTW.. thats how birds can sit on high power lines without being electrocuted...they arent earthed.. the electricity can find its way to ground through their bodies, so they are unharmed.

Answer 3

lightning is an electrical dscharge of a potential against another potential (most likely ground)

it requires a transition media which is (more or less) conductive

air is a bad conductor, but good enough to allow a discharge to buildup some sort of channel into it, resulting in a lightning

for the case of the shuttle its simple

not enough air, not enough media to transport an electrical discharge, no lightning in common sense will strike upwards

on the other hand pictures from space showed a rare phenomena above cloudtops, called 'blue sprites' .. possibly some sort of plasma-reaction, which is still under investigation.

nevertheless those sprites do not reach up to the shuttle or the ISS cause both are well above

Answer 4

Lightning is nothing more than an electric discharge or byproduct of the activity during a storm.  It remains local, and the energy won't leap too far over the clouds.  Satellites should be fine, and a strike wouldn't get anywhere near the moon.

Answer 5

The lightning that strikes upwards doesn't go very far, not nearly far enough to strike a satellite.  Plus, there has to be enough electrical charges in the object to balance the unbalance in charges that cause the lightning.  The only things that have that much charge are the earth and the separated charges within the cloud.  The lightning going up is not striking anything, it's kind of a rebound effect on the charges.

It takes hundreds of thousands of volts to strike through a few inches of air so to strike the moon would take an un-countable voltage.  Lightning does not have the voltage to do that.  Plus, electricity follows the path of least resistance.  It will strike the Earth long before it will strike the moon.  

Lightning doesn't leave the atmosphere.  The clouds are nowhere near the upper atmosphere and those little upward-tending bolts don't go very high.

Answer 6

i dont think you understand lightning very well.  

its like that spark of static you get when you rub your feet on a dry carpet. It arcs from one thing to another, where there is a difference in charge.

you can have cloud-to-ground lightning, ground-to-cloud, cloud-to-cloud... but you are suggesting cloud to ISS?  Intriguing, but lightning strikes need something to snap through... they ionize the air in a 'tube' then pass their electrical potential thru the tube.  There is no air around the ISS, and for many miles below it, so lightning would have nothing to ionize.

<edit> this could be the premise for a story...  in 2011-2012 we will have a Solar Maximum, lots of juicy flares... when this happens the Earth's atmosphere actually gets higher... sometimes interfering with satellites by causing increased drag.  Suppose such an event occurred and also suppose that there was a huge high-altitude thunderstorm...

nope, i don't see where that is going, unless it just knocks out the power on the ISS and there is a scramble to escape.  Even so, the Soyuz escape pod is there... basically, we got it covered.

Answer 7

There are lightning which go upwards, up to 120 km high, but their energy high in the altitude becomes very low and is no harm for spacecraft.

Also, all spacecraft have a small electrical flow around them all the time, which is too weak for powering the spacecraft but can be used for navigation. You already require more shielding for the normal radiation environment in space, as possible stratospheric lightning could ever require.