Mechanism of capture section affecting an intake for atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion

Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion(ABEP)can compensate for lost momentum of spacecraft operating in Very Low Earth Orbit(VLEO)which has been widely concerned due to its excellent commercial potential.It is a key technology to improve the capture efficiency of intakes,which collect and compress the atmosphere for ABEP.In this paper,the mechanism of the capture section affecting capture efficiency is investigated by Test Particle Monte Carlo(TPMC)simulations with 3D intake models.The inner surface smoothness and average collision number are determined to be key factors affecting capture efficiency,and a negative effect growth model is accordingly established.When the inner surface smoothness is less than 0.2,the highest capture efficiency and its corresponding average collision number interval are independent of the capture section’s geometry and its mesh size.When the inner surface smoothness is higher than 0.2,the capture efficiency will decrease by installing any capture section.Based on the present results,the manufacturing process and material selection are suggested to be prioritized during the intake geometry design in engineering projects.Then,the highest capture efficiency can be achieved by adjusting the length and mesh size of the capture section.

Optical detection method of discharge mode transition of inductively coupled plasma in an atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion system

Plasma discharge stability is an important problem in atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion system when maintaining long-term missions at ultra-low earth orbit.This paper designed an inductively coupled plasma source to imitate the ionization section.The effect of inflow rate and Radio Frequency(RF)power on the plasma discharge mode transition is experimentally studied.A discharge mode detection method is proposed,which determines the discharge mode by identifying the morphology of the plasma core.By using the method,the discharge mode transition is quantified and a control model based on the parameter sensitivity is constructed.To verify the method,the spectra are measured and the electron temperature spatial distribution is calculated.And the method has been proven effective.The results show that the inductively coupled discharge contains capacitive components affected by the mass flow rate and the radio frequency power.The plasma characteristics can be maintained stably by controlling the radio frequency power when the mass flow rate randomly changes in a certain range.It is demonstrated that the application of detection method effectively identifies the discharge mode,which is a promising active control method for the plasma discharge mode.

An atmosphere-breathing propulsion system using inductively coupled plasma source

CubeSats have attracted more research interest recently due to their lower cost and shorter production time.A promising technology for CubeSat application is atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion,which can capture the atmospheric particles as propulsion propellant to maintain longterm mission at very low Earth orbit.This paper designs an atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion system for a 3 U CubeSat,which consists of an intake device and an electric thruster based on the inductively coupled plasma.The capture performance of intake device is optimized considering both particles capture efficiency and compression ratio.The plasma source is also analyzed by experiment and simulation.Then,the thrust performance is also estimated when taking into account the intake performance.The results show that it is feasible to use atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion technology for CubeSats to compensate for aerodynamic drag at lower Earth orbit.