Relationship of Current Distribution of Magnetopause and Thrust Characteristics in Multipole Magnetic Sail

摘要

Multi-pole magnetosphere has complex magnetic fields and current distribution. We focused on the structure for the thrust performance improvement of the magnetic sail. Magnetic sail is a propulsion system using the solar winds and artificial magnetic fields on the coil mounted on spacecrafts. We made the multipole coil, it generates complex magnetic fields has multiple magnetic pole. We conducted experimental simulation of multipole magnetic sail using the multipole coil we made and the large size plasma plume generator consisted of three MPD arcjets. Then, we measured the magnetic fields deviation rate and the current distribution using probe method. Hence, we identified the magnetopause size as 340 mm. Moreover, we observed two stronger current regions, ring current region at 150 mm from the coil center and magnetopause current region at 270 mm from the coil center. Further, we evaluated the relationship of magnetospheric structure generated by a multi-pole coil and induced current.