Drive device for posture control

Abstract

Abstract PURPOSE:To enable the storage of a large amount of hydrogen gas with less weight and capacity by turning the hydrogen gas fed from a pressure vessel into plasma state in a plasma cell, applying kinetic energy to the gas with an accelerating electrode and controlling the posture of a satellite with thrust generated due to the acceleration of the gas. CONSTITUTION:The internal temperature of a pressure vessel 11 is raised with a heater 13, thereby releasing stored heavy hydrogen from a metal-hydrogen compound 12. Heavy hydrogen gas is taken out from the pressure vessel 11 via a control valve 14, and fed to a plasma cell 15. In this case, the plasma cell 15 is provided with a coil for receiving high-frequency current from a high- frequency power supply 16, and the heavy hydrogen gas is supplied into the coil, thereby being turned into plasma state via high-frequency discharge. Also, plasma gas 18 is accelerated with an accelerating electrode and jetted outside from a jet port 20, thereby giving thrust to a satellite. Furthermore, the temperature of the heater 13 is regulated with a control device 22 on the basis of measurements with a pressure gauge 23, thereby maintaining the internal pressure of the pressure vessel 11 at the predetermined value.

Inventors

• 👤 Takayuki Aoki
• 👤 青木　高之

Bibliographic Details