用于空间辐射主动防护的等离子体发生器设计

Design of Plasma Source Dedicated to Active Protection from Space Radiation

等离子引发磁膨胀技术被美国航空航天局推荐为最有工程应用价值的空间辐射主动防护技术。在该技术中,高密度等离子体发生器的设计是其中的关键技术之一。本文设计了一种高密度螺旋波等离子体发生器,采用13.56 MHz射频源激发等离子体天线,并将该等离子发生器偏心放置在表面磁感应强度为0.1 T的柱状永久磁铁内,以氩气为工作气体进行了真空舱磁膨胀实验。利用朗缪尔探针,对发生器产生的等离子体密度及温度随输入功率的变化进行了测量,该发生器成功地引发了磁铁磁场膨胀。

A novel type of the high density,low energy consumption,helicon plasma generator has been successfully developed for the applications in active protection from space radiation on the basis of the mini-magnetospheric plasma propulsion.In th prototyped helicon plasma source,installed a little eccentrically inside a cylindrical permanent magnet with a surface magnetic induction of 0.1 T,its helicon antenna is driven by a radio-frequency power supply of 13.56 MHz with argon as its operating gas in the space-environment simulation test.The impacts of the input power on the plasma density and temperature were characterized with Langmuir probe,and the plasma-induced magnetic field inflation was clearly observed.