The measurement and intervention technique of plasma sheath studied in laboratory

When a hypersonic spacecraft reenters the space atmosphere, the dense plasma sheath will be formed on the surface of the hypersonic spacecraft due to shock wave heating and ablation of thermochemical protective materials. The formation of sheath will cause the interruption of radio communication signals. Therefore, reducing and eliminating the black barrier is very important for the safety of aircraft measurement and control. To solve this problem, the techniques for plasma sheath measurement and active intervention are developed and validated in the laboratory. First, a novel composite probe is proposed based on the apparent consistency advantages of probe and aircraft surface. It can diagnose the electron density in the high-temperature flow field plasma in real-time and effectively. Further, the active intervention method of electrophilic material release experiment is developed, and the ground simulation experiment shows that the method can effectively reduce the electron density in the flow field plasma.