Electromagnetic Manipulation of Plasma Sheath on Hypersonic Vehicles

Vehicles flying at hypersonic velocities within the atmosphere become enveloped in a ōplasma sheathö that prevents radio communication, telemetry, and most importantly, GPS signal reception for navigation. This radio ōblackoutö period has been a problem for many decades. An appropriate mitigation method must allow for spacecraft to ground control and ground control to spacecraft communications through the reentry plasma sheath. Our solution is to reduce the electron density by applying magnetic and electric fields to the plasma using specially designed array of electromagnets and electrodes to create a channel of reduced electron number density in the plasma sheath which, in turn, reduces the plasma frequency sufficiently to allow transmission window of radio waves. Optowares will leverage its previous experience with using ExB electromagnetic manipulation of plasma density and optical emission spectroscopy for plasma mapping, and collaborate with the University of Colorado-Boulder utilizing its expertise in hypersonic modeling and simulations. Ultimate objective is to design and demonstrate flexible active suppression of plasma density that can be customized to each hypersonic design and operational scenario.