Rarefied Flow Simulation of Conical Intake and Plasma Thruster for Very Low Earth Orbit Spaceflight

Abstract

Air-breathing electric propulsion has the potential to enable space missions at very low altitudes. This study introduces to a 0D hybrid formulation for describing the coupled intake and thruster physics of an air-breathing electric propulsion prototype. Model derivation is then used to formally derive main system’s key performance indicators and estimate the figure of merit for the design of rarefied flow air intakes. Achievable performance by conical intake shapes are defined and evaluated by Monte Carlo simulations. Influence of inlet flow variation is assessed by dedicated sensitivity analyses. The set of requirements and optimality conditions derived for the downstream plasma thruster suggest concept feasibility within an achievable performance range.

Coupling plasma physics and chemistry in the PIC model of electric propulsion: Application to an air-breathing, low-power Hall thruster

“…The latter has led to the so-called atmospheric-breathing electric propulsion (ABEP) [4,5] for Earth (N 2 and O 2 ) or Venus and Mars (CO 2 ). The ABEP system includes an intake to collect and compress the molecular gas [6][7][8] and an efficient electric thruster to compensate for the atmospheric drag operating on the satellite. Due to its similarity to the ramjet gas chemical propulsion used in aerospace applications, the ABEP concept is also known as RAMEP.…”

Air-breathing electric propulsion: mission characterization and design analysis

“…Such materials are currently under investigation [33], but none currently exist, so this work will be limited to diffuse collimator-accumulator designs [10,27]. Previous investigations have shown that for passive collimator-accumulator type inlets η in varies with inlet geometry and is inversely proporational to compression ratio of the inlet [12,34]. Collimator-accumulator type inlets have been proposed in literature with η in ranging from 20% to >45% [30,31].…”

“…Collimator-accumulator type inlets have been proposed in literature with η in ranging from 20% to >45% [30,31]. Higher inlet efficiencies can be achieved at the cost of gas compression but this is generally considered undesirable [12,34]. For this work η in =0.35 is assumed to be a reasonable estimate for applicable to a wide range of systems [27,29,35].…”

Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion: Mission Characterization and Design Analysis

“…Such materials are currently under investigation [33], but none currently exist, so this work will be limited to diffuse collimatoraccumulator designs [10,27]. Previous investigations have shown that for passive collimator-accumulator type inlets η in varies with inlet geometry and is inversely proporational to compression ratio of the inlet [12,34]. Collimatoraccumulator type inlets have been proposed in literature with η in ranging from 20% to > 45% [30,31].…”

“…Collimatoraccumulator type inlets have been proposed in literature with η in ranging from 20% to > 45% [30,31]. Higher inlet efficiencies can be achieved at the cost of gas compression but this is generally considered undesirable [12,34]. For this work η in = 0.35 is assumed to be a reasonable estimate for applicable to a wide range of systems [27,29,35].…”