CN113173266B - Plasma vector propeller without moving parts - Google Patents

Plasma vector propeller without moving parts Download PDF

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Publication number
CN113173266B
CN113173266B CN202110411851.5A CN202110411851A CN113173266B CN 113173266 B CN113173266 B CN 113173266B CN 202110411851 A CN202110411851 A CN 202110411851A CN 113173266 B CN113173266 B CN 113173266B
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antenna
discharge
plasma
discharge tube
vector
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CN113173266A (en
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苌磊
张金恒
袁小刚
杨鑫
徐倩
周海山
罗广南
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Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of CAS
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Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of CAS
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    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B64AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS
    • B64GCOSMONAUTICS; VEHICLES OR EQUIPMENT THEREFOR
    • B64G1/00Cosmonautic vehicles
    • B64G1/22Parts of, or equipment specially adapted for fitting in or to, cosmonautic vehicles
    • B64G1/24Guiding or controlling apparatus, e.g. for attitude control
    • B64G1/242Orbits and trajectories
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B64AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS
    • B64GCOSMONAUTICS; VEHICLES OR EQUIPMENT THEREFOR
    • B64G1/00Cosmonautic vehicles
    • B64G1/22Parts of, or equipment specially adapted for fitting in or to, cosmonautic vehicles
    • B64G1/24Guiding or controlling apparatus, e.g. for attitude control
    • B64G1/244Spacecraft control systems
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B64AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS
    • B64GCOSMONAUTICS; VEHICLES OR EQUIPMENT THEREFOR
    • B64G1/00Cosmonautic vehicles
    • B64G1/22Parts of, or equipment specially adapted for fitting in or to, cosmonautic vehicles
    • B64G1/24Guiding or controlling apparatus, e.g. for attitude control
    • B64G1/26Guiding or controlling apparatus, e.g. for attitude control using jets

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Remote Sensing (AREA)
  • Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
  • Radar, Positioning & Navigation (AREA)
  • Aviation & Aerospace Engineering (AREA)
  • Automation & Control Theory (AREA)
  • Plasma Technology (AREA)

Abstract

The invention discloses a plasma vector propeller without a moving part, which realizes vector propulsion without a mechanical movement deflection part by combining a plurality of tubes of coupling discharge tubes, wherein a single tube discharge system comprises an air source, a valve, an antenna, a grounding electrode, a discharge tube and a power supply. The air source is directly connected with the discharge tubes through valves, the valves can independently control the air inlet of each discharge tube, the antenna is embedded in the discharge tube and externally connected with a power supply, the grounding electrode is sleeved at two ends of the discharge tube, and each antenna can also be independently controlled. The plasma vector propeller has smaller space size and overall mass, can work in a single-tube mode and also can work in a multi-tube combination mode, can realize thrust of micro-to milli-newtons, can realize accurate vector control by utilizing multi-tube combination, and is suitable for being equipped with a micro satellite for high-precision attitude control and relative orbit position maintenance. In addition, the system is single-sided array type, has compact structure, can be arranged on one side of a spacecraft, and saves loading space.

Description

Plasma vector propeller without moving parts
Technical Field
The invention is suitable for the technical field of plasma propulsion, namely a micro propulsion system with high integration level, low power consumption, low thrust and micro impulse, can be applied to formation flight of microsatellites (microsatellites, nano satellites and pico satellites) and constellations, and particularly designs a propulsion system of the microsatellites and realization of a vector propeller, wherein the propulsion system is mainly designed for inductive-capacitive cross coupling discharge plasma micro propulsion, and the vector propeller is mainly used for realizing the angle deflection of the satellites through the combination of discharge tubes.
Background
The propulsion system is a key subsystem for the spacecraft to execute tasks such as orbital maneuver and special attitude control, but the microsatellite which is internationally developed in the last twenty years is hardly provided with the propulsion system or has extremely limited maneuverability, and the main reason is that the traditional propulsion system has large volume and mass and is not suitable for the microsatellite. However, with the development of the microsatellite technology and the expansion of the application field thereof, and the continuous penetration of space exploration at home and abroad, the requirement for a micro propulsion system is more and more urgent. The miniature satellite formation flying and constituteing constellation can complete the work which cannot be completed by a plurality of complex and expensive large satellites, and the efficiency and cost for completing the work are higher and lower in a plurality of times, such as the formation of a distributed satellite-borne carrier radar, the three-dimensional imaging of satellites, the high-resolution synthetic aperture earth remote sensing and the like. However, the above task is completed, and very high requirements are put on the maintenance of the relative orbit positions among satellites and the high-precision attitude control, specifically as follows:
firstly, the miniature satellite has small volume, light weight and small moment of inertia, and is used for controlling the satellite orbit and attitude, and the thrust required by the satellite orbit and attitude is small and the required precision is high, generally the micro-origanum milli-newton level;
second, the goal of the microsatellite formation flight is to maintain the relative position rather than the absolute position between satellites, and the minimum impulse pulse required is very small, typically ranging from 10 according to control accuracy requirements and control period 9 Ns~10 3 Ns magnitudes;
third, microsatellites are capable of providing low power supply voltages, typically 3V-12V, up to 28V, and typically have total power on the order of 1W to tens of watts.
Therefore, a high integration, low power consumption, low thrust and micro impulse micro propulsion system suitable for micro satellite orbit maintenance, orbit maneuver and attitude control must be studied, i.e. a vector micro propulsion system is needed.
Many plasma propulsion systems, such as hall propellers and ion propellers, are currently developed rapidly in recent years, but all of them belong to electromagnetic propulsion, the ejected ions are jet flows, cathode electrons are needed to be neutralized and kept electrically neutral, and all of the propulsion devices need magnets to generate magnetic fields to restrain plasmas, so that the devices are complex and are not suitable for propulsion of microsatellites. At present, a plasma thruster capable of discharging through inductive capacitive interaction belongs to electric heating type micro propulsion, the space size and the overall mass of the plasma thruster are very suitable for micro satellite propulsion, impulse pulses are very low, the thrust of micro-to milli-newtons can be realized, the average power consumption is only 10-100W, and the plasma thruster is very suitable for being equipped with micro satellites for high-precision attitude control and relative orbit position maintenance. But the single tube thrust is very small and vector propulsion cannot be realized, so that multiple tubes are needed to be combined in practical application.
Disclosure of Invention
In order to solve the defects existing in the prior art, the invention provides a plasma vector propeller without moving parts. The invention mainly improves the disadvantages of small thrust and unidirectional propulsion of a single electrothermal inductive-capacitive interactive discharge plasma thruster, improves the thrust through single-sided array combination of a plurality of inductive-capacitive interactive discharge plasma thrusters, and realizes vector propulsion through controlling the ignition of a plurality of thrusters in array combination.
The plasma vector propeller without moving parts adopts a plurality of inductive-capacitive interactive coupling discharge plasma propulsion systems, and is formed by combining a plurality of plasma propulsion systems, and comprises an air source, a valve, an inductive-capacitive interactive coupling antenna, a grounding electrode, a discharge tube and a radio frequency power supply. In a plasma propulsion system, one end of a gas source is connected with a gas collection chamber, plasma is excited in a discharge tube to generate, gas of the gas source is heated when passing through a plasma region, then the gas expands and is ejected to the other end to form thrust, and the thrust is required to be placed in a vacuum environment constructed in a vacuum chamber during experiments.
The air source is directly connected with each discharge tube, and the air inlet of each discharge tube is independently controlled by a valve;
the antenna is connected with a radio frequency power supply, is embedded in the middle of the discharge tube, and 2 grounding electrodes are sleeved at two ends of the discharge tube and used for exciting plasma;
the frequency of the radio frequency power supply is 13.56MHz.
The gas source is connected with the discharge tube through a valve, and the gas is air, nitrogen or inert gas, wherein the inert gas comprises one of argon, helium and xenon.
The gas source may be air, nitrogen or inert gas including argon, helium, xenon, etc.
The beneficial effects are that:
1. the plasma vector propeller without moving parts belongs to an electric propulsion system, and compared with a chemical propulsion system, the plasma vector propeller without moving parts does not generate blockage, and can realize micro thrust by using a small-size nozzle throat.
2. When the plasma vector thruster is used for precisely controlling the attitude and the orbit position of the microsatellite, the overall mass of the plasma vector thruster without a moving part is smaller than that of a traditional vector thruster, the generated thrust is larger than that of a single-tube vector thruster, and the angle deflection is realized more precisely.
3. In addition, the electric propulsion has the advantages of high specific impulse and low thrust, but the traditional electric propulsion needs a large amount of electric power (1-2 kW), the plasma vector propulsion without a moving part has low power consumption, and in one embodiment, the average power consumption of each discharge tube is only 10-100W, the electric propulsion can work in a single tube mode or a multi-tube combined mode, not only can realize thrust of micro-to milli-newtons, but also can realize accurate vector control by utilizing a multi-tube combination, and is very suitable for being used for miniature satellites with limited power to realize high-precision attitude control and relative orbit position maintenance.
4. The system of the invention is single-sided array type, has compact structure, can be arranged on one side of a spacecraft, and saves loading space.
Drawings
In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, a brief description of the drawings in one example is provided below.
FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view and three views of a single-sided 3×3 array plasma vector thruster; fig. 1 (a) -side view, fig. 1 (b) -front view, fig. 1 (c) -rear view, in mm;
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a measurement principle of the correspondence between ignition distribution of a plasma vector thruster and angular deflection of a satellite model; fig. 2 (a) shows the forward propulsion of the whole discharge tube when the discharge tube is ignited, the horizontal plane is not inclined, and fig. 2 (b) shows the forward propulsion of the partial discharge tube when the horizontal plane of the level is inclined towards the direction of no ignition; fig. 2 (c) is a partially enlarged view.
Reference numerals illustrate: 1-air source, 2-valve, 3 antenna, 4-ground electrode, 5-discharge tube, 6-radio frequency power supply, 7-hot gas jet, 8-level gauge, 9-scale. Wherein the hot gas jet 7 is not a component part of the plasma vector thruster, ions in plasma generated by discharge collide with neutral gas charge to generate heat, and the neutral gas is heated to be ejected to the other end to generate the hot gas jet 7.
Detailed Description
The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, but not all embodiments, and all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without the inventive effort based on the embodiments of the present invention are within the scope of protection of the present invention.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a plasma vector thruster without moving parts includes one or more propulsion systems, wherein each independent propulsion system is an inductively-capacitively coupled discharge plasma propulsion system, comprising: the device comprises an air source (1), a valve (2), an antenna (3), a grounding electrode (4), a discharge tube (5) and a radio frequency power supply (6);
the air source (1) is directly connected with each discharge tube (5) and is independently controlled by the valve (2);
the antenna (3) is connected with the radio frequency power supply (6) and embedded in the middle of the discharge tube (5) to form inductive coupling discharge for exciting plasma and heating gas entering the discharge tube (5) from the gas source (1);
the grounding electrode (4) is sleeved at two ends of the discharge tube (5) and forms inductive-capacitive cross coupling discharge with the antenna (3) for exciting plasma.
In the embodiment of fig. 1, the individual propulsion systems are arranged in an array, using single sided 3 x 3 array type plasma vector propulsion without moving parts. Or in other combinations, the discharge tubes may be in a 2 x 2,4 x 4, annular array, or other embodiments.
The antenna (3) is wound on the discharge tube (5), and the antenna can be a common plasma excitation antenna such as a capacitive coupling antenna, an inductive coupling antenna, a spiral wave antenna and the like.
Each discharge tube (5) is independently controlled to be switched by a valve (2).
Placing the plasma vector propeller in a vacuum chamber, and vacuumizing to make the air pressure reach a specified value of 7×10 -7 Torr。
Introducing air or inert gas from an air source (1), controlling the air pressure of an air collection chamber of the air source to be 1.6Torr and the air pressure in a discharge tube to be 2.5X10 -4 Torr。
The radio frequency power supply (6) is turned on to adjust the power, the power is controlled to be 10-100W, plasma is generated in the discharge tube by excitation, wherein ions collide with neutral gas charge to generate heat, the neutral gas is heated, and the neutral gas expands to spray hot gas jet (7) to the other end to generate thrust.
The precise vector control of the microsatellite is realized by measuring the angle formed by the plane of the single-sided array type plasma vector propeller and the horizontal plane of the level meter.
The plasma vector thruster without moving parts has very small space dimensions and overall mass, in one embodiment 100 x 38 (units: mm).
The control model for realizing the angle deflection when the plasma vector thruster is applied to the high-precision attitude control of the microsatellite is specifically explained below with reference to fig. 2.
When the accurate vector control is realized, the discharge tube combination is assembled on one plane of the satellite model in an array type plasma vector propeller, the level deflection height difference of a level meter (8) placed on the plane of the model is measured by using a graduated scale (9), and the deflection angle of the model is determined. Wherein fig. 2 (a) shows the forward propulsion when all discharge tubes are ignited, the horizontal plane is not inclined, fig. 2 (b) shows the forward propulsion when part of the discharge tubes are ignited, and the horizontal plane of the level is inclined towards the direction of no ignition (as shown in the partial enlarged view (c) of fig. 2 (b)), namely, the angle of the forward propulsion direction is deflected. The utilization relation is as follows:
wherein R is the radius of the level, L is the level inclination change height of the level, and θ is the deflection angle; the corresponding relation between the two-dimensional ignition distribution and the satellite model steering can be determined, and finally, an accurate vector control model of the two-dimensional plane array type plasma vector propeller is established.
In conclusion, the plasma vector propeller has smaller space size and overall mass, can work in a single-tube mode and also can work in a multi-tube combination mode, can realize thrust of micro-to milli-newtons, can realize accurate vector control by utilizing the multi-tube combination, and is suitable for being equipped with a micro satellite for high-precision attitude control and relative orbit position maintenance. In addition, the system is single-sided array type, has compact structure, can be arranged on one side of a spacecraft, and saves loading space.
The above embodiments are further described in detail for the technical solution of the present invention, and any modification, replacement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims (2)

1. A plasma vector thruster without moving parts, comprising: a non-moving deflecting mechanical component which combines a plurality of independent propulsion systems, wherein each independent propulsion system is fixed on the same combined surface, and then vector propulsion is realized by jointly controlling the ignition of each propulsion system, and the forward and angle deflection of the aircraft are controlled, so that the vector propulsion of the non-moving deflecting mechanical component is realized;
the independent propulsion system is an inductively-capacitively coupled discharge plasma propulsion system comprising: the device comprises an air source (1), a valve (2), an antenna (3), a grounding electrode (4), a discharge tube (5) and a radio frequency power supply (6);
the air source (1) is directly connected with each discharge tube (5) and is independently controlled by the valve (2);
the antenna (3) is connected with the radio frequency power supply (6) and embedded in the middle of the discharge tube (5) to form inductive coupling discharge for exciting plasma and heating gas entering the discharge tube (5) from the gas source (1);
the grounding electrode (4) is sleeved at two ends of the discharge tube (5) and forms inductive-capacitive cross coupling discharge with the antenna (3) for exciting plasma;
one end of the air source (1) is filled with air, nitrogen or inert gas, and the inert gas comprises one of argon, helium and xenon;
the number of the discharge tubes (5) is multiple, and the discharge tubes (5) are combined and arranged on the same surface of the air source in different arrays;
the antenna (3) comprises a capacitive coupling antenna, an inductive coupling antenna, a capacitive coupling antenna and a spiral wave antenna, wherein the antenna (3) is made of a metal material with good conductivity, and the metal material comprises copper and tungsten;
the grounding electrodes (4) are distributed on two sides of the discharge tube (5) and are used for grounding the discharge tube; the grounding electrode (4) is made of a metal material with good conductivity;
the frequency of the radio frequency power supply (6) is 13.56MHz.
2. A plasma vector thruster without moving parts according to claim 1, characterized in that: when the accurate vector control is realized, the discharge tube combination is assembled on one plane of a satellite model in an array type plasma vector propeller, the level deflection height difference of a level meter (8) placed on the plane of the model is measured by a graduated scale (9), and the deflection angle of the model is determined; the utilization relation is as follows:
wherein R is the radius of the level, L is the level inclination change height of the level, and θ is the deflection angle; the corresponding relation between the two-dimensional ignition distribution and the satellite model steering can be determined, and finally, an accurate vector control model of the two-dimensional plane array type plasma vector propeller is established.
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CN118270253A (en) * 2024-04-11 2024-07-02 上海大学 Integrated global micro-propulsion system and satellite

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CN111997853A (en) * 2020-06-05 2020-11-27 中国科学院合肥物质科学研究院 Near space environment air suction type radio frequency plasma propeller

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