Takahashi Kazunori
Department of Electrical Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8579, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2025 Aug 20;15(1):30589. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-16449-9.
Active removal of space debris is an emerging technology aimed at sustaining space activity in Earth orbit by mitigating the risk of collisions between operational satellites and debris. Utilizing a bi-directional magnetic nozzle (MN) radiofrequency (rf) plasma thruster has been proposed to remediate and remove debris from the Earth orbit, where the debris is decelerated by continuously exerting a force to the debris by a plasma beam ejected from the thruster, and zero net force exerted to the thruster is simultaneously maintained by ejecting a second plasma beam to the opposite direction, maintaining the distance between the satellite and the debris. Previous laboratory experiment has demonstrated bi-directional plasma ejection from a single MN rf plasma thruster having two open source exits for symmetric magnetic field configuration having fairly straight magnetic field lines in the insulator source tube wound by a rf loop antenna. Enhancing the force exerted on the debris is essential for reducing the time required for deorbiting. Here it is demonstrated that a symmetric cusp-field configuration can increase the force exerted to the debris under the circumstance that the thrust is maintained at nearly zero level by the bi-directional ejection of the plasma, where the convergent-divergent MNs are formed near the two open-source exits.
主动清除空间碎片是一项新兴技术，旨在通过降低运行卫星与碎片之间碰撞的风险，维持地球轨道上的空间活动。有人提出利用双向磁喷管（MN）射频（rf）等离子体推进器来清理和清除地球轨道上的碎片，在该过程中，推进器喷出的等离子体束持续对碎片施加力，使碎片减速，同时通过向相反方向喷出第二束等离子体，使作用在推进器上的净力保持为零，从而维持卫星与碎片之间的距离。先前的实验室实验表明，对于在绝缘源管中具有相当直的磁力线的对称磁场配置，通过由射频环形天线缠绕的单个MN射频等离子体推进器的两个开源出口可以实现双向等离子体喷射。增强对碎片施加的力对于减少脱轨所需的时间至关重要。在此表明，在通过等离子体的双向喷射将推力维持在接近零水平的情况下，对称尖点场配置可以增加对碎片施加的力，其中在两个开源出口附近形成了收敛-发散MN。
