Vietnamese doctor finds way to reduce material heat to protect spacecraft

Dr. Le Thi Quynh Trang and scientists in Japan have found a method to help reduce heat flow on materials to help protect the surface of spacecraft and satellites.

The work was published in Nature by Dr. Trang, Institute for Advanced Technology Research and Development, Duy Tan University, and professors from Japan. The researchers said that reducing the heat of electron and ion flux is one of the important issues, contributing to the protection of the surface of satellites and spacecraft.

Talking to VnExpress , Dr. Trang said that when electrons and ions are at high temperatures, they easily move and collide with the metal surface. As a result, the metal surface can be destroyed. The research team used an external magnetic field, created by an electric current through the heating wire. A plasma flow model, including electrons and ions in a small region, was established using two spatial dimensions and three coordinates for velocity to determine the impact of the heating wire on particles and heat flux.

Simulation of plasma confined by vacuum. Photo: Research team

Dr. Trang said that when simulating the movement of plasma particles at the edge of the tokamak, the team found that magnetic fields can change the direction and intensity of heat flow because electrons and ions move around magnetic lines. In particular, concentrated magnetic fields (magnetic fields with maximum magnitude in the central region and rapidly decreasing in the region far from the center) have the ability to form magnetic mirrors. These mirrors help retain most of the plasma particles as they move across and only allow particles with velocities large enough to escape the mirror to move outside. Therefore, the flow of high-energy particles is reduced before hitting the metal surface.

Explaining the use of heating wire in the study, the group said that the magnetic field created by a wire is inversely proportional to the distance to the wire, the further away the wire is, the smaller the magnetic field is. In other words, the wire can create a concentrated magnetic field. Using electric rays can change the magnetic field structure of the device system, affecting the direction of particle flow. After careful research, the group concluded that high heat flux is significantly reduced on the metal surface when using electric rays.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft uses advanced materials to protect its surface. Photo: SpaceX.

Dr. Trang believes that the research results play an important role and can become a potential candidate in reducing the flow of high-energy particles to metal surfaces, thereby playing a role in shielding the surface of satellites and spacecraft from high-energy ion and electron flows. She optimistically predicts that this research method will soon be applied in practice. "The group will further study the feasibility of the proposed method when putting it into practice," Dr. Trang said.

Research to find new materials and surface protection solutions for spacecraft and satellites is being pursued by many scientists. In particular, NASA used a heat shield covered with carbon fiber material that can peel off to prevent spacecraft carrying humans to Mars from burning up when returning to Earth.

In 2021, Chinese researchers developed a new type of double-layer polyimide nanocomposite film that can be used to more effectively protect the external surfaces of spacecraft.

vnexpress.net