Two-Dimensional Particle-In-Cell Simulation of Magnetic Sails

Ashida, Yasumasa; Funaki, Ikkoh; Yamakawa, Hiroshi; Usui, Hideyuki; Kajimura, Yoshihiro; Kojima, Hirotsugu

doi:10.2514/1.b34692

Cited by 16 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…The size of the plasma cavity for a small magnetic dipole, which is equivalent to the size of the magnetosphere, was derived in our previous work. 15 We did this by considering the effect of a particle's finite Larmor radius, which is given by…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By performing full-PIC simulations in which the electrons were treated as particles, we were able to evaluate the MPS thrust for the case in which L/r iL is less than unity. 15 Figure 1 shows a summary of the size of the magnetosphere as estimated by various models, such as the MHD approximation (according to Eq. (1), shown on the top line), full PIC simulations, and test particle simulations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Full kinetic simulations of plasma flow interactions with meso- and microscale magnetic dipoles

et al. 2014

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We examined the plasma flow response to meso-and microscale magnetic dipoles by performing three-dimensional full particle-in-cell simulations. We particularly focused on the formation of a magnetosphere and its dependence on the intensity of the magnetic moment. The size of a magnetic dipole immersed in a plasma flow can be characterized by a distance L from the dipole center to the position where the pressure of the local magnetic field becomes equal to the dynamic pressure of the plasma flow under the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) approximation. In this study, we are interested in a magnetic dipole whose L is smaller than the Larmor radius of ions r iL calculated with the unperturbed dipole field at the distance L from the center. In the simulation results, we confirmed the clear formation of a magnetosphere consisting of a magnetopause and a tail region in the density profile, although the spatial scale is much smaller than the MHD scale. One of the important findings in this study is that the spatial profiles of the plasma density as well as the current flows are remarkably affected by the finite Larmor radius effect of the plasma flow, which is different from the Earth's magnetosphere. The magnetopause found in the upstream region is located at a position much closer to the dipole center than L. In the equatorial plane, we also found an asymmetric density profile with respect to the plasma flow direction, which is caused by plasma gyration in the dipole field region. The ion current layers are created in the inner region of the dipole field, and the electron current also flows in the region beyond the ion current layer because ions with a large inertia can closely approach the dipole center. Unlike the ring current structure of the Earth's magnetosphere, the current layers in the microscale dipole fields are not circularly closed around the dipole center. Since the major current is caused by the particle gyrations, the current is independently determined to be in the direction of the electron and ion gyrations, which are the same in both the upstream and downstream regions. The present analysis on the formation of a magnetosphere in the regime of a microscale magnetic dipole is significant for understanding the solar wind response to the crustal magnetic anomalies on the Moon surface, such as were recently observed by spacecraft. V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Full kinetic simulations of plasma flow interactions with meso- and microscale magnetic dipoles

et al. 2014

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“…On the other hand, in inner side of the diamagnetic current, the magnetic field is weakened. As a result, a part of the solar wind plasma approaching the coil center is not reflected and the thrust generation by the mirror reflection decreases 8) . Therefore, the thrust of MPS is not necessarily proportional to the increase in the magnetosphere size.…”

Section: Typical Simulation Results Of Magneto Plasma Sailmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For simplicity, direct collisions between particles are neglected in this paper. The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) can be also ignorable as revealed by MHD simulation and Full-PIC simulation 7,8) . Table 2 lists the design parameters of the magnetic sail; these parameters are expected to give a small-scale magnetic sail (on the order of 100 m) in which electron kinetic effects are significant.…”

Section: Numerical Model For Full-pic Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Small-scale Magneto Plasma Sail and Propulsive Characteristics

Ashida

Funaki

Yamakawa

et al. 2014

AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY JAPAN

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Magneto Plasma Sail (MPS) is spacecraft propulsion that produces an artificial magnetosphere to block solar wind particles, and thus impart momentum to accelerate a spacecraft. In the present study, we conducted three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations on small-scale magnetospheres (< ion Larmor radius, 100 km) to investigate thrust characteristics of MPS, in which the magnetosphere is inflated by an additional plasma injection. As a result, we revealed that the finite thrust generation and the increase in thrust are obtained on the small-scale magnetosphere even if the electron kinetics is taken into consideration. The thrust of MPS (1.0 mN) becomes up to 14 times larger than that of the original magnetic sail (0.07 mN). However, it was also revealed that the thrust gain of MPS defined as thrust of MPS / (thrust of magnetic sail + thrust of plasma jet) is approximately unity and thrust-mass ratio and thrust-power ratio are further smaller compared with other existing propulsion system. An extensive improvement of a thrust is required for the realization of MPS.

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“…Thrust gain obtained in this case is as much as about 20. The dependence on releasing plasma parameters is also studied in our recent papers 13,14,15 . Thrust gains obtained in the above models and simulations are summarized in Fig.12.…”

Section: Numerical Simulation Of Magnetoplasma Sailmentioning

confidence: 97%

Magnetoplasma Sail with Equatorial Ring-current

Funaki

Kajimura

Ashida

et al. 2013

49th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference

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A magnetoplasma sail (MPS) spacecraft produces an artificial magnetosphere to reflect the solar wind particles approaching the coil, and the corresponding repulsive force exerts on the coil to accelerate the spacecraft in the solar wind direction. In this paper, numerical study of plasma equilibrium in an artificial magnetosphere in interplanetary space is updated to check if the idea of plasma equilibrium is applicable to for MPS or not. It is numerically shown that releasing a low-velocity plasma from an MPS spacecraft excites an equatorial ring-current, which makes a larger magnetosphere and correspondingly a larger thrust level becomes possible. Thrust gain, which is defined as a thrust ratio between MPS and pure magnetic sail without releasing plasma, was found to be as much as 40; this thrust gain is predicted from a limited model describing the interaction between a dipole magnetic field and ions. In addition to the limited simulation, some full numerical simulations of MPS, including a solar wind to magnetosphere interaction as well as plasma equilibrium in a magnetosphere, were conducted to indicate a thrust gain as much as 3.77 is possible in an MHD regime.

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Two-Dimensional Particle-In-Cell Simulation of Magnetic Sails

Cited by 16 publications

References 20 publications

Full kinetic simulations of plasma flow interactions with meso- and microscale magnetic dipoles

Full kinetic simulations of plasma flow interactions with meso- and microscale magnetic dipoles

Analysis of Small-scale Magneto Plasma Sail and Propulsive Characteristics

Magnetoplasma Sail with Equatorial Ring-current

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