Electrodynamic interactions between a space station and the ionospheric plasma environment

Wang, J.; Hastings, Daniel E.; Martı́nez-Sánchez, Manuel

doi:10.2514/3.11526

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 21 publications

(13 reference statements)

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“…The general analytical soh•tion of the plasma wake behind a spacecraft is impossible. However, considerable insight can be gained fi'om the analytic, solution of the plasma flow around a fiat plate [ Wang and Hastings, 19923,b;Wang, 1991]. For the conditions in LEO, consider a two-dimensional plate in a cold, collisionless plasma flow.…”

Section: At Great Distances From the Body But Slightly Offmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of plasma interactions with spacecraft in low Earth orbit

Hastings¹

1995

J. Geophys. Res.

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128

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All spacecraft interact in some manner with the plasma environment in space, either the natural environment or a self‐induced environment. Early work on plasma spacecraft interactions focused on geosynchronous altitudes where the primary effect is spacecraft charging from the non‐Maxwellian high‐energy plasma environment. This work has been extensively reviewed. In the last several years, there have been a number of measurements in low Earth orbit (LEO) which, when combined with models, have revealed a rich variety of plasma interaction phenomena at these low altitudes. These are reviewed in this work. These include charging on polar orbits, ram and wake flows, use of high‐voltage power systems in space, arcing on high‐voltage solar arrays, noise generation in self induced plasma clouds around large, active spacecraft such as the shuttle, anomalous ionization of emitted neutral gases, use of electrodynamic tethers and plasma contactors and phenomena associated with the use of electrically propelled rockets.

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Section: At Great Distances From the Body But Slightly Offmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of plasma interactions with spacecraft in low Earth orbit

Hastings¹

1995

J. Geophys. Res.

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128

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“…Brundin [14]'s conclusions were based on the assertion that LEO spacecraft surface potentials never became more negative than −0.75 V, a statement supported by major works of the era [ 25,56,57]. The growing sophistication of spacecraft, particularly in LEO, has lead to an increased interest in the interaction of highly charged space platforms with the LEO environment [26,29] (see [53,54] for example).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

pdFOAM: A PIC-DSMC code for near-Earth plasma-body interactions

et al. 2017

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Understanding the interaction of the near-Earth space environment with orbiting bodies is critical, both from a design and scientific perspective. In Low Earth Orbit (LEO), the interaction between the ionosphere and orbiting objects is well studied from a charging perspective. Not well understood is the effect of the ionosphere on the motion of LEO objects i.e. charged aerodynamics. This paper presents the implementation, validation, and verification of the hybrid electrostatic Particle-in-Cell (PIC) -Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) code, pdFOAM, to study both the neutral and charged particle aerodynamics of LEO objects. The 2D aerodynamic interaction of a cylinder with a fixed uniform surface potential of −50 V and mesothermal O + and H + plasmas representative of ionospheric conditions is investigated. New insights into the role of bounded ion jets and their effect on surface forces are presented. O + bounded ion jets are observed to cause a 4.4% increase ion direct Charged Particle Drag (dCPD), while H + ion jets produce a net reduction in H + drag by 23.7% i.e. they cause a thrust force. As a result, we conclude that past work, primarily based on Orbital Motion Limited theory, does not adequately capture the physics of LEO charged aerodynamics. Hence, we recommend a revisit of conclusions regarding the significance of CPD to LEO objects -pdFOAM being an appropriate tool for this purpose.

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“…The high dimensionality and non-linear nature of these phenomena have, historically, made them difficult to investigate. 3,5,7,8 The reduction of parameters through dimensional analysis is an established approach for investigating highly dimensional, complex systems. The scaling of plasma interactions has been treated by a variety of authors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scaling of plasma-body interactions in low Earth orbit

2017

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This paper derives the generalised set of dimensionless parameters that scale the interaction of an unmagnetised multi-species plasma with an arbitrarily charged object - the application in this work being to the interaction of the ionosphere with Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) objects. We find that a plasma with K ion species can be described by 1+4K independent dimensionless parameters. These parameters govern the deflection and coupling of ion species k, the relative electrical shielding of the body, electron energy, and scaling of temporal effects. The general shielding length λϕ is introduced, which reduces to the Debye length in the high-temperature (weakly coupled) limit. The ability of the scaling parameters to predict the self-similar transformations of single and multi-species plasma interactions is demonstrated numerically using pdFOAM, an electrostatic Particle-in-Cell—Direct Simulation Monte Carlo code. The presented scaling relationships represent a significant generalisation of past work, linking low and high voltage plasma phenomena. Further, the presented parameters capture the scaling of multi-species plasmas with multiply charged ions, demonstrating previously unreported scaling relationship transformations. The implications of this work are not limited to LEO plasma-body interactions but apply to processes governed by the Vlasov-Maxwell equations and represent a framework upon which to incorporate the scaling of additional phenomena, e.g., magnetism and charging.

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Electrodynamic interactions between a space station and the ionospheric plasma environment

Cited by 6 publications

References 21 publications

A review of plasma interactions with spacecraft in low Earth orbit

A review of plasma interactions with spacecraft in low Earth orbit

pdFOAM: A PIC-DSMC code for near-Earth plasma-body interactions

Scaling of plasma-body interactions in low Earth orbit

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