K.2.3 ESABASE: OUTGASSING, PLUME-PLUMFLOW and CONTAMINE modules

ESABASE is a general spacecraft modelling tool including several modules developed by several parties under ESA sponsorship. ESABASE essentially deals with contamination through its OUTGASSING module, developed by Matra Marconi Space (MMS). It allows computation of contaminant deposit on spacecraft by numerical integration:

The PLUME module currently implemented in ESABASE simulates thruster plume expansion. It was derived from CONTAM code and does not correctly model plume backflow. It is thus essentially used for forces and torques, and thermal analysis.

The module called CONTAMINE computes surface interactions (adsorption, diffuse reflection, specular reflection) and, above all, surface effects: modification of thermooptical, electrical and mechanical properties, or global output power reduction for solar cells. These property changes are either taken from data gathered in a data base included in CONTAMINE (with interpolation between available data, which are not always very numerous), or complex index computed. It can also be interfaced with the older OUTGASSING module to compute deposit thickness including reemission.