Development Of The Laser Detonation Hyperthermal Oxygen Beam Source

Low Earth Orbit (LEO), located200to700km above the Earth’s surface, is the space, where meteorological satellites, space stations and earth observation satellites and other spacecrafts run. The space environment in LEO is complex, and its impact on spacecraft surface material includes atomic oxygen (AO) erosion, vacuum ultraviolet radiation, space debris impact and thermal cycles effect, etc. The most serious factor that affects the exposed material of spacecraft in LEO is atomic oxygen erosion. Therefore, successful ground simulation of atomic oxygen in LEO space is very important in investigating the spacecraft surface material and ensuring the success of missions in space.In this thesis, a hyperthermal atomic oxygen atom beam source was developed and built successfully based on laser detonation technique. The produced O beam’s velocity and intensity have been characterized. Time of flight spectrum shows that velocity of our produced hyperthermal O beam is about7000-8500m/s corresponding translational energy is4.1-5.8ev, which is in accordance with the relative velocity of atomic oxygen in LEO. Erosion depth of kapton-H material during exposure experiment shows the intensity of our hyperthermal O beam is3.6×1015atom/cm2·pulse.Results indicates that the hyperthermal O atom beam source based on laser detonation technique, which was developed in this thesis, successfully achieved the ground simulation of space AO environment in LEO. Material tests using this source could reveal the effect of AO in LEO on material, mechanism of the interaction of AO in LEO and material, and provide guides on how to choose and prepare space material.