Control of weakly-ionized flow around reentry spacecraft and its application

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24246139
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Aerospace engineering
• Research Institution: Japan Aerospace EXploration Agency
• Principal Investigator: ABE TAKASHI 国立研究開発法人宇宙航空研究開発機構, 宇宙科学研究所, 名誉教授 (60114849)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): OTSU Hirotaka 龍谷大学, 理工学部, 准教授 (20313934) ; YAMADA Kazuhiko 宇宙航空研究開発機構, 宇宙科学研究所, 助教 (20415904) ; NISHIDA Hiroyuki 東京農工大学, 工学研究院, 准教授 (60545945) ; KATSURAYAMA Hiroshi 山口大学, 理工学研究科, 准教授 (80435809)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 極超音速流れ / プラズマ / 再突入宇宙機 / 磁気相互作用 / 流れの制御

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The spacecraft reentering into the atmosphere experiences a severe aerodynamic heating caused by the hot plasma flow around it. For flight safety, it is required to mitigate such a severe heating environment in addition to developing a heat protection system for the spacecraft. Because the hot plasma is influenced by the existence of the electromagnetic field, it is possible to make use of the electromagnetic force to mitigate such a severe heating environment. In this study, we investigated several problems inherent to this technique when it is applied to the spacecraft reentering to an atmospheric planet; ranging from the feasibility of the heat flux distribution control to the effect of high altitude flight.

Free Research Field

航空宇宙に係る工学研究、特に、高速空気力学の宇宙探査への応用