  Molecular dynamics calculations of inelastic collisions of atomic oxygen with
molecular nitrogen are known to show orders of magnitude discrepancies with
experimental results in the range from room temperature to many thousands of
degrees Kelvin. In this work, we have achieved an unprecedented quantitative
agreement with experiments even at low temperature, by including a
non-adiabatic treatment involving vibronic states on newly developed potential
energy surfaces. This result paves the way to the calculation of accurate and
detailed databases of vibrational energy exchange rates for this collisional
system. This is bound to have an impact on air plasma simulations in a wide
range of conditions and on the development of Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO)
satellites, operating in the low thermosphere, objects of great technological
interest due to their potential at a competitive cost.
