Alleviation of reentry communications blackout by electrostatic methods
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The reentry blackout phenomenon affects most spacecraft entering a dense planetary atmosphere from space, due to a plasma layer that surrounds the spacecraft. This plasma layer is created by the ionization of ambient air due to shock and frictional heating created by the moving reentry vehicle, and, in some cases is further enhanced due to contamination by ablation products. The highly mobile electrons in the plasma cause a strong attenuation of incoming and outgoing electromagnetic waves, including those used for command and control, communication, and telemetry over a period referred to as the ``blackout period''. The blackout period may last up to several minutes, and at reentry speeds that may be of the order of 10 km/s, poses a serious safety hazard for the payload on board the spacecraft, especially for human spaceflight. In this work, we present a method for alleviation of reentry blackout using electric fields in a pulsed fashion. We study the reentry plasma's interaction with electronegative voltage pulses using computer simulations that incorporate models of the plasma's response to the applied electric field and interactions between the plasma sheath and the spacecraft surface. The simulations show how one can create pockets of depleted electron density in the reentry plasma sheath that may be used as ``communication windows'', thereby circumventing reentry blackout. Several parametric sweeps are also performed in order to design a blackout alleviation system. Finally, we present a discussion of experimental efforts to verify the simulation results and conclude with a conceptual design for a reentry communications blackout alleviation system based on the exclusive use of electric fields.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2017 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Krishnamoorthy, Siddharth | |
|---|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. | |
| Primary advisor | Close, Sigrid, 1971- | |
| Thesis advisor | Close, Sigrid, 1971- | |
| Thesis advisor | Cantwell, Brian | |
| Thesis advisor | Jameson, Antony, 1934- | |
| Thesis advisor | Oppenheim, Meers, 1962- | |
| Advisor | Cantwell, Brian | |
| Advisor | Jameson, Antony, 1934- | |
| Advisor | Oppenheim, Meers, 1962- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Siddharth Krishnamoorthy. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2017. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2017 by Siddharth Krishnamoorthy
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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