Design and Initial Operation of an Experimental Simulator of Magnetic Sail

概要

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In order to simulate the interaction between the solar wind and the artificially deployed magnetic field produced around a magnetic sail spacecraft, a laboratory simulator was designed and constructed inside the space chamber (2 m in diameter) at ISAS. As a solar wind simulator, a high-power magnetoplasmadynamic arcjet is operated in a quasisteady mode of . 0.8 ms duration. It can generate a simulated solar wind that is a high-speed ( above 20 km/s ), high-density ( 10^17 -10^19 m^<-3> ) hydrogen plasma plume of . 40 cm in diameter. A small coil (2 cm in diameter), which is to simulate a magnetic sail spacecraft and can obtain 1.9-T magnetic field strength at its center,was immersed inside the simulated solar wind. Using these devices, the formation of a magnetic cavity (-8 cm in radius) was observed around the coil. In order to successful simulate the plasma flow around the coil (simulated magnetic sail spacecraft) in the laboratory, the reflection of the plasma flowing toward the coil at the boundary of the magnetic cavity should be clearly observed.
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