Spacecraft-plasma-debris interaction in an ion beam shepherd mission
Articles
Overview
published in
- ACTA ASTRONAUTICA Journal
publication date
- May 2018
start page
- 216
end page
- 227
volume
- 146
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0094-5765
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1879-2030
abstract
- This paper presents a study of the interaction between a spacecraft, a plasma thruster plume and a free floating object, in the context of an active space debris removal mission based on the ion beam shepherd concept. The analysis is performed with the EP2PLUS hybrid code and includes the evaluation of the transferred force and torque to the target debris, its surface sputtering due to the impinging hypersonic ions, and the equivalent electric circuit of the spacecraft-plasma-debris interaction. The electric potential difference that builds up between the spacecraft and the debris, the ion backscattering and the backsputtering contamination of the shepherd satellite are evaluated for a nominal scenario. A sensitivity analysis is carried out to evaluate quantitatively the effects of electron thermodynamics, ambient plasma, heavy species collisions, and debris position.
keywords
- plasma plumes; hybrid; particle-in-cell; ion beam shepherd; active debris removal; sputtering.