Mitigation of communication blackout during re-entry using static magnetic field

Abstract

During re-entry into earth's atmosphere, a spacecraft suffers from loss of communication with the ground control station, known as communication blackout, due to formation of plasma around the re-entry spacecraft. This paper presents the theory and analysis of the communication blackout and its mitigation using static magnetic field method. The interaction between electromagnetic waves and plasma in presence as well as absence of magnetic field is described to determine the effects of plasma sheath on the spacecraft re-entering into the atmosphere. An analysis is done to determine the effectiveness of this mitigation technique for a typical re-entry spacecraft and the strength of magnetic field required to establish the communication link between the re-entry spacecraft and the ground station is obtained.