Knudsen Pump and Its Possibility of Application to Satellite Control

Abstract

Engineering application of the Knudsen pump to space satellite control system is considered. The Knudsen pump is a new vacuum pumping system that utilizes a thermal transpiration flow that is peculiar to a rarefied gas. There is no moving part in this pumping system and the mechanism is so simple that many possible applications are predicted. In this paper we investigate the basic features of the Knudsen pump numerically, and suggest the possibility of application to the artificial satellite control system.