TRIBOELECTRIFICATION-Static electric charge can pose flight risk — Ares I-X launch

Found the story Here

By William Neff, The Plain Dealer

October 25, 2009, 11:39AM

 

The Ares I-X is ready to fly.

 

 

. 

 

Lightning Strikes Apollo 12 as it lifts off from Launch Pad
39A on Nov.14,1969. Ares I-X will lift off from the pad 
next door, 39B.

The Ares I-X mission's launch weather officer, Kathy Winters, dropped a tongue-twister in Sunday's press briefing that had even some veteran aerospace reporters in the auditorium scratching their heads.
The word  -- remember this for future spelling bees -- was

triboelectrification.

Simply put,

triboelectrification

is a static electric charge that can build up on flying vehicles, aircraft as well as spacecraft, as they move through particles in the atmosphere. That usually means
precipitation, as in rain. But clouds, even light ones,
can contain enough particles to deliver the charge.              

And while

triboelectrification's

effects are not as dangerous to a spacecraft as a direct lightning strike -- a pair of which nearly caused the 1969 Apollo 12 moon mission to abort just after liftoff -- it can still cause enough static to garble telemetry between the rocket and ground contollers and threaten the Ares I-X flight.
This phenomenon affects some vehicles more than others, depending on the materials used to build them. Over nearly 30 years of space shuttle flights, NASA has seen that these bulky vehicles are not very susceptible to triboelectric effects. And indeed, it may develop that the tall, slender Ares rockets aren't either. But until they're tested to find out, NASA engineers will take any serious cloud cover as their signal to keep Ares I-X on the launch pad.

Whenever a word comes out that I haven't used. I always like to figure out what they mean.When I came across triboelectrification I thought that I must find out more.
Even though lightning isn't around static electicity can be generated.

Yours Truly,

mediamerlin