2023 Volume 1 Article ID: 68
Magnetoplasma sail (MPS) is a space propulsion system using the interactions between the solar wind and the magnetopause generated by the onboard coil. MPS performs magnetospheric inflation by plasma injection. There are two mechanisms of magnetospheric inflation: the effect of extending the magnetic field line due to dynamic pressure and the effect of expanding the magnetic moment due to thermal pressure. In this study, the influence of the pressure types on the angular dependence of thrust of MPS considering both the thermal pressure and the dynamic pressure of the injection plasma at different circumferential injection angles was investigated using MHD calculation. The results show that the maximum thrust gain is obtained at 0° in the case of the injection plasma with no initial velocity. However, in the case of the injection plasma with the dynamic pressure, the thrust gain was taken as the thrust peak at 10°. For a higher injection angle, the acceleration in the magnetopause after injections is sufficient to cancel the magnetopause current, and the thrust gain becomes small.
