Recent development of intake devices for atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion system

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paerosci.2022.100848Get rights and content

Abstract

Increasing interest in development of very low Earth orbit (VLEO) has attracted more and more researchers to study atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion (ABEP) system in past several decades. This system can use rarefied atmospheric particles as the propellant of electric thrusters, and maintain a long lifetime mission without carrying any propellant from ground. As the key component of system, intake device can realize the collection and compression of atmospheric particles within limited frontal area, which determines the performance of whole ABEP system. This review summarizes the previous studies to develop intake devices, evaluates the corresponding performance and understands the model involved, including atmosphere model, flow physic model and so on. In addition, several continued researches for intake device are also presented, including ground experiment technologies, intake surface material development, space compressor and liquefaction technology. Wherever possible, comments have been provided to provide useful reference to researchers engaged in intake device for ABEP system.

Introduction

Satellites play the significant role in human activities, including global positioning, network interconnection, Earth observation, scientific experiment and so on [1]. According to the satellite database from Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) [2] to the date of September in 2021, the number of satellites currently operating at orbit is large and increases rapidly. However, the launch cost of a satellite is huge, and the space technology still needs to advance such as lower cost, smaller satellite and operation in swarms [3]. Especially for the satellite constellations, the large number of satellites requires the higher performance propulsion system to maintain orbit or control attitude [4]. Compared to the chemical propulsion, the electric propulsion (EP) technology is a better choice for satellites, which provides significant advantages due to its higher power density [5]. In recent years, the plasma-based space electric propulsion technologies have developed a lot [6], including hall thruster, ion thruster, electrodeless thruster and so on. These electric propulsion products use solid, liquid or gas propellant to generate plasma and thrust under the excitation of electromagnetic field. In order to reduce the operation cost furtherly, researches focus on the iodine propellant for electric propulsion satellite in recent years [7,8] due to its lower ionization energy and lower price. Another novel exploration for electric propulsion is using atmospheric particles as propellant, which called atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion (ABEP) technology.

As shown in Fig. 1(a), the number of satellites operate at the high-altitude orbit is large, but there are almost no satellites working at very low Earth orbit (VLEO), especially for orbit below 250 km. Therefore, developing the ultra-low Earth orbit resources have become a new field for researchers to expand the operation range of spacecraft (S/C), enhance the mission capability. The lower Earth orbit has its unique advantages for satellites [9]: The lower operation altitude means the lower launch costs, higher observation accuracy, less communication losses, safer operation environment, etc. At the same time, the operation of S/C at VLEO also faces kinds of challenges and difficulties [10]: Affected by the rarefied atmosphere, the S/Cs usually face larger aerodynamic drag at lower orbit; Difficulties in supplying of propellant also limit the lifetime of S/Cs; The atomic oxygen erosion can interact with coatings of S/Cs and degrade their performance. In order to solve these problems, the concept of ABEP is proposed.

As shown in Fig. 1(b), a typical ABEP system is mainly composed of intake device and electric thruster [11,12]. The rarefied atmospheric particles against the flight direction are captured by intake device, which are provided to electric thruster as the propellant. In order to generate thrust to compensate the larger aerodynamic drag at the VLEO, the capture performance of intake device must be improved to obtain sufficient propellant. Compared to the electric thruster that has developed for several decades, intake device is still considered as a novel subsystem of S/C for researchers. Recent success of the low-orbit Gravity field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) mission [13] has furtherly attracted the interest of researchers in propellant capture technology. Given the mounting interest, this comprehensive review presents the current state of intake device development, and provides the avenues of continued research.

The basic knowledge to study intake device is introduced in next Section, including atmosphere models and flow physics. It describes atmospheric particles composition, density distribution, horizon wind data, and the interaction mechanism between intake surface and atmospheric flow. Then, the comprehensive development status of intake device is presented in Section 3, which is involved different universities and research institutes. The development status of intake devices is summarized in Section 4 to understand the intake classifications, including key types, schematic solution, performance comparisons etc. The last Section proposes some new ideas for the continued work, and it can provide guidance and development suggestions for researchers in this field.

Section snippets

Basic knowledge

Before studying the atmospheric particles capture device, i.e., intake device, the characteristics of the VLEO atmosphere and corresponding flow physics need to be understanded firstly. The performance of ABEP system will be influenced by the characteristics of the atmospheric gas, including its composition, density, temperature, and so on. In addition, the atmosphere is considered as the rarefied flow, so the rule of the interaction between gas and body is different with the classical

Intake device of ABEP system

The utilization of ambient gas as a propellant for low earth orbit electric propulsion has been studied in last century [38]. Recent publication [39] also proved the necessity of intake device for the application of ABEP system. An air-intake device is used to capture the atmospheric particles, compress them and drive them into the electric thruster. These particles are usually travelling at a high speed against the flight direction of S/Cs. Thus, the intake device needs to reduce the backflow,

Development status of intake device

According to the previous studies, the intake device mainly includes two types, active device and passive device, respectively. As shown in Fig. 15, an active intake device usually uses additional pumps to help the collection and compression of atmospheric particles. A passive intake device usually captures particles through its special configurations.

To summarize the main configurations and the corresponding performance, a comparative analysis of different intake designs is listed in Table 2,

Future work and challenges

Given the great benefits and increasing interest of ABEP system, this paper provides a clear development status of intake device (the unique component) for ABEP system, including the operation environment modelling, corresponding basic flow physic and a detail review of intake device developed by different universities and institutes. Starting with the working of JAXA, it firstly proposes the integral ABIE concept containing a ring-type intake device, while the effective inlet area is too low

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

Peng Zheng would like to thank Mengjie Zhao for her support.

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