High Altitude Re-entry Plasma Emulation Experiment (HARPEE)

R C Toonen; C J Peters; K J Johnson; N C Varaljay

NASA NTRS · 20230014991

High Altitude Re-entry Plasma Emulation Experiment (HARPEE)

R C Toonen·C J Peters·K J Johnson·N C Varaljay

Abstract

A table-top apparatus has recently been constructed at the NASA Glenn Research Center to investigate potential solutions for the radio-frequency communication blackout problem -- experienced by landing modules during high-speed atmospheric entry. This customized plasma chamber was designed to emulate Earth-based atmospheric entry plasmas with electron densities in the range of 10^16 m^-3 to 10^19 m^-3. The system makes use of a 40-kHz, perforated coaxial electrode pair to generate a disk-shaped, static plasma with an approximate diameter and thickness of 405 mm and 100 mm, respectively. A translatable Langmuir probe was employed to characterize the radial profile of electron temperature and density as a function the 40-kHz power (< 1 kW) and dry-nitrogen flow rate (< 160 SCCM).

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BibTeX RIS

R C Toonen, C J Peters, K J Johnson, N C Varaljay. High Altitude Re-entry Plasma Emulation Experiment (HARPEE). https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20230014991

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