Space dust high-velocity particle influence on electronic equipment

Determination of failure causes of the control systems and navigation electronic elements of space flying vehicles (SFV), observed in the process of long-time flights, is of current importance. Failures of the control systems in the process of long-time flights considerably reduce their reliability and, consequently, raise expenses in this field. In particular, this requires an additional backup of satellites-retransmitters, which results in an increase of the number of SFV launches. At present, experts are actively elaborating the hypothesis that one of the most probable causes of the SFV electronic system failures are the flows of the space dust particles, moving in the near-Earth and interplanetary space, and possessing velocities from 7.8 km/sec to 16 km/sec. The flows of the high energy (Galactic) ions, for a number of cases, are considered to be the basic cause of the destruction of electronic control systems. This, in particular, makes it possible to explain the failures in flights to Mars of the autonomous space modules performed by the European and American space agencies. The optimum flight route to Mars passes through agglomerations of dust clouds, which necessitates a high probability of collision for the flying vehicles with dust clots. Therefore, the success of the American research module is quite logical, which was done with the highest deviation from the optimum route.