Studying of Atomic and Molecular Interaction Processes in Rarified Hypervelocity Expanding Flows by Methods of Emissive Spectroscopy

摘要

The Project includes three relatively independent tasks joined by a common idea to elucidate complex phenomena occurring in hypervelocity rarified flows of electric propulsion (EP) and liquid propulsion (LP) motor exhausts. Processing and interpretation of experimental data obtained on board of Russian space station 'Mir' during experiment on April 26, 2000. In that experiment a large-scale UV-glow was observed in the LP motors exhaust flow of the Russian space vehicle (SV) 'Progress'. Problems associated with the 'Progress' plume glow radiation modeling were addressed, as the glow radiation is directly related to parameters of hypervelocity collisions between plume and atmospheric species. Modern approaches to simulation of the rarified non-equilibrium reacting glows exploit ideas of total elastic and inelastic molecular collision cross-sections. Finally, Hall-effect thrusters (HETs) and their plasma plumes were studied. Plasma probes were developed, calibrated and applied to the plume. The xenon emission was measured and interpreted via a collisional-radiative model. A cluster of 3 HETs was developed and its operation tested and the plume studied.