Abstract
The work is devoted to the theoretical assessment of the efficiency increase possibility for the radio-frequency ion injector, which is designed for the contactless removal of space debris from near-earth orbit by using an antenna located inside the discharge chamber. Four internal antenna configurations and two external ones—end and side—are considered. Expected characteristics were estimated using an engineering mathematical model built in COMSOL Multiphysics using an approximate magnetohydrodynamic description of the charged particle behavior. According to the simulation results, the best characteristics can be obtained with an internal antenna with a conical arrangement of turns. Calculations showed that in some operating modes, such an antenna configuration makes it possible to halve the radio-frequency power consumption compared to the classical antenna located on the discharge chamber side surface. The performed theoretical study showed that the internal antenna can significantly increase the ion injector efficiency. In the future, verification of the obtained results by test is planned.
Highlights
The growing interest in space exploration has already led to, and in the near future will only increase, the need to solve the problem associated with a large number of spent space technology objects and their fragments in near-earth orbit, known as the “space debris” (SD) problem [1,2]
One of the problems of this approach is the ion beam divergence, which leads to the fact that in order to ensure efficient removal, the service spacecraft must be located as close to the removable object as possible
Characteristics at different antenna configurations were compared using the dependences of the ion beam current extracted from the injector on the input RF power, which were calculated at the xenon flow rates of 0.5 and 1 mg/s and are shown in Figures 3 and 4
Summary
The growing interest in space exploration has already led to, and in the near future will only increase, the need to solve the problem associated with a large number of spent space technology objects and their fragments in near-earth orbit, known as the “space debris” (SD) problem [1,2]. It is worth noting that a strong electromagnetic field on the surface of the antenna turns can affect the process of charged pnaar0tic=le0s.r7e(cSoDmCb+inaaStiinodn).(TkhTee/reMfoir)e1/, 2a(n σaicθcoVmDmC)o−d1a, tion coefficient w(a2s) introduced to the model, which defines the share of reflected particles The value of this cwoehfefrieciSenDtCdiseptheendDsCoinntaelranraglesunrufmacbeearreoaf;dSiifnfderiesntthfeaicntoterrsn: athl einpdruocptoelrlasunrtfaatcoemarmeaa;sVsDaCndis etnheerDgyC, tihnetetrenmalpveoralutumree;aσniθd itshtehme patreorpiaellloafntthioensiuzraftaiocen ocnoteoffiwciheincth. The accomm(νoead+atiνoeni)ncoemefefiuc2ei0e/n4t idnVth=e mondieuli(weεaesffa+ss3u/m2ekdTetfof +bekTcoe n+stea∆nφt: +a =5/02.4k5T.wT)hdisS valu(3e) was Vobtained in [18] by the calcuSlation for xenon, which is supposed to be used as a propellant for the considered injector Taking this coefficient into account, an additional boundary condition, which describes the neutral particle backflow from the internal antenna surface, was introduced into the simplified mathematical model [16]: Г=. A more detailed description of the model is presented in [16]
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