"Brian Gaff" writes:

Quite some time ago, these were in the news, but I noticed this morning that
these are being blamed for small shorts on Cassini now. With the ISS being
life extended etc, i wonder how long it will be before we hear about hese
here. I find it odd that according to the Cassini story, they are still not
really sure why these occur. Its definitely something one will need to stop
if we want to live on other planets I'd suggest. Do they only occur in
microgravity, or is it some interaction due to radiation and free radicals
or maybe ionised gas.

See:

http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/