Building on experimental and theoretical work at the University of Colorado Boulder, in which concepts are being developed for touchless electrostatic actuation in space, including GEO debris removal via Coulomb forces generated by charging targets with electron beams, two projects are offered.
Subject:
Building on experimental and theoretical work at the University of Colorado Boulder, in which concepts are being developed for touchless electrostatic actuation in space, including GEO debris removal via Coulomb forces generated by charging targets with electron beams, two projects are offered.
The first will will employ a state-of-the-art hybrid DSMC/PIC supercomputer code to study the physics of miniature-satellite-mounted electron beam propagation to study and demonstrate electrostatic actuation in a complex space plasma environment. The effects of altitude (ie whether the beam is deployed in the thermosphere, ionosphere or magnetosphere), and the self-charging effects on the satellite, will be included.
The second will employ similar approaches to explore the possibility to tomographically reconstruct satellite charge distributions from external electrostatic measurement and behaviours.
UNSW Canberra Space
