Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
8055445 | Acta Astronautica | 2018 | 38 Pages |
Abstract
This paper shows the possibility of active control of the drag on a spacecraft in the Earth's ionosphere using the electromagnetic force produced by the interaction of the spacecraft's magnetic field with the incident plasma flow. As a result of experimental simulation of the dynamic interaction of the magnetic field of a sphere with a hypersonic flow of the rarefied ionospheric plasma, the sphere drag coefficient is determined as a function of the ratio of the magnetic pressure to the dynamic pressure in a wide range of the angle between the incident flow velocity and the magnetic field and the angle between the incident hypersonic plasma flow and the velocity of a subsonic plasma jet injected from the sphere surface. It is shown that injecting a subsonic plasma jet into the mini-magnetosphere cavity provides a several-fold increase in the drag coefficient of a “magnetized” sphere (a sphere with its own magnetic field) in a hypersonic rarefied plasma flow in comparison with a “nonmagnetized” sphere. A 0.6 ⦠0.8â¯T magnetic field of a “magnetized” body may be an efficient means for its deorbiting through increasing the drag on the body in the Earth's ionosphere, which provides a way for removing space debris objects to lower orbits.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Engineering
Aerospace Engineering
Authors
Valentin A. Shuvalov, Nikolai B. Gorev, Nikolai A. Tokmak, Nikolai I. Pis'mennyi, Galina S. Kochubei,