Jia Shaoxia

Study of magnetic field expansion using a plasma generator for space radiation active protection

There are many active protecting methods including Electrostatic Fields, Confined Magnetic Field, Unconfined Magnetic Field and Plasma Shielding etc. for defending the high-energy solar particle events (SPE) and Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) in deep space exploration. The concept of using cold plasma to expand a magnetic field is the best one of all possible methods so far. The magnetic field expansion caused by plasma can improve its protective efficiency of space particles. One kind of plasma generator has been developed and installed into the cylindrical permanent magnet in the eccentric. A plasma stream is produced using a helical-shaped antenna driven by a radio-frequency (RF) power supply of 13.56 MHz, which exits from both sides of the magnet and makes the magnetic field expand on one side. The discharging belts phenomenon is similar to the Earths radiation belt, but the mechanism has yet to be understood. A magnetic probe is used to measure the magnetic field expansion distributions, and the results indicate that the magnetic field intensity increases under higher increments of the discharge power.