Experimental investigation of plasma sail propulsion concepts using cascaded arcs and rotating magnetic field current drive.

摘要

This research describes experimental investigations into the generation of a magnetic barrier to deflect the solar wind and thereby provide thrust for spacecraft propulsion. Two distinct methods of generating this barrier were pursued. The first method was an attempt to form high-beta plasma that would inflate a magnetic field. This method is based on the "Mini-Magnetosphere Plasma Propulsion" (M2P2) concept. The second method drives currents in plasma using rotating magnetic fields (RMF), and is based on the "Plasma Magnet" concept. While the mechanisms for deploying the large (kilometer-size) barriers to the solar wind differ between these two concepts, there are fundamental commonalities. Both systems are envisioned as a way to create a barrier to intercept the high velocity, low-pressure solar wind. Both systems eliminate the need for large physical magnets to generate this barrier by using a comparatively trivial mass of plasma. This thesis details the three experiments I have built and operated at the University of Washington to investigate these concepts. The measured parameters of the generated plasmas, such as density and electron temperature, are presented. Attempts to create a high-beta plasma using cascaded arc plasma sources were unsuccessful. However, experiments using RMF were highly successful. For the first time RMF-driven currents in plasma located outside a set of circular RMF antennas have been demonstrated during the course of this research. These RMF-driven currents were sufficient to reverse the 33--77 Gauss ambient magnetic fields that represented more than one Newton of force on the system.