Kinetic Simulations/Modeling of Plasma Sails
Kinetic Simulations/Modeling of Plasma Sails
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DOI：
10.2514/6.2003-5226
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发表时间：
2003-07
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
N. Omidi;H. Karimabadi
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
N. Omidi;H. Karimabadi
等离子帆作为推进机构的可行性取决于许多尚未确定的问题。在此，我们讨论其中的两个问题。一个是关于动量从太阳风转移到航天器的可能性，另一个是关于所需的等离子体注入在所产生的磁层中的影响。先前的等离子体帆的双流体建模是有用的，但考虑到离子动力学效应的优势，为了充分解决可行性问题，需要进行动力学模拟。因此，我们进行了动力学模拟等离子帆，使用专门开发的代码。我们表明，太阳风与等离子帆的相互作用形成了一个磁层更类似于一个小行星，是非常不同的比地球的磁层。这对等离子帆的可行性具有重要意义。例如，虽然离子反射确实发生，但尚不清楚动量如何转移到航天器，因为反射来自弓形波而不是磁层顶。此外，我们发现，等离子体传输以及气泡的膨胀是敏感的等离子体注入的细节。因此，适当血浆注射方案的质量标准仍有待确定。
The viability of the plasma sail as a propulsion mechanism hinges on a number of issues that are as yet undetermined. Here we address two of these issues. One is in regards to the possibility of momentum transfer from the solar wind to the spacecraft and the other concerns the effect of the required plasma injection in the resulting magnetosphere. Previous two-fluid modeling of the plasma sail have been useful but given the predominance of ion kinetic effects, kinetic simulations are required in order to fully address the feasibility issues. Accordingly we have performed kinetic simulations of the plasma sail, using specially developed codes. We show that the interaction of the solar wind with the plasma sail forms a magnetosphere more akin to that of an asteroid and is much different than that of the Earth’s magnetosphere. This has significant implications for the feasibility of plasma sail. For instance, although ion reflection does occur, it is not clear how momentum is transferred to the spacecraft because the reflection is from the bow wave and not the magnetopause. Further we find that both the plasma transfer as well as the expansion of the bubble are sensitive to the details of the plasma injection. Thus Specification of the appropriate plasma injection scheme remains to be established.