Satellite Wind Tunnel Studies for LEO Objects in the Ionosphere
Abstract
The evolving nature of the challenges facing LEO activities requires advances in space traffic management capabilities that are contingent on an understanding of all the forces affecting a bodys motion. The aerodynamic interaction of LEO objects with the ionosphere (ionospheric aerodynamics) is currently not considered. This work presented a review of the early charged drag experiment performed by Knechtel and Pitts [1] and comparisons with predictions made using the PIC-DSMC code, pdFOAM. While uncertainties in the experimental description made an accurate reconstruction of the results in [1] difficult, the following observations were made: pdFOAM was successfully able to reproduce trends observed experimentally in [1]; scaling of plasma-body interactions must be able to account for artificial body potentials; the design of experiments should carefully consider the coupling of phenomena if using body potential as a test parameter; and the increase in charged drag forces on the small test model studied by Knechtel and Pitts [1] may have been primarily caused by an increase in relative sheath thickness (and direct drag forces) instead of indirect effects as previously hypothesized.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 14, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1096507
Entities
People
- Philippe Lorrain
Organizations
- University of New South Wales