BETs

Deorbiting

BETsMA, a software developed under the FP7/Space project BETs funded by the European Commission, aim at preliminary mission analysis using bare electrodynamic tethers. It brings together in a friendly tool more than 20 years of research on bare tethers and the latest developements by the BETs Consortium. Using BETsMA, both experts and beginners on tethers will find the optimum tether system for a given space debris deorbiting mission, i.e. initial orbit altitude and inclination and mass of the host satellite.

Optimization

The software provides the main figures of merits, including deorbit time, mass of the subsystems, satellite trajectory and tether survival probability among others. Its friendly user interface and optimized algorithms validated against previous works on tethers are specially designed for quick parametric studies in a broad range of orbital and tether conditions..

Links:

The code is currently under register process. Licenses will be distributed by UPM. Please contact to: gonzalo.sanchez@upm.es

Deorbiting

Kilaps is a two-dimensional non-stationary Vlasov-Poisson solver aimed at the analysis of current collection by cylindrical Langmuir probes. Thanks to the implemented discretization scheme (Kilaps is a eulerian Vlasov code), the software is free of numerical noise. This is an important advantage as compared with popular particle-in-cell codes. As opposed to stationary Vlasov-Poisson solvers, Kilaps is able to capture particle trapping. Targeted users include experts on Langmuir probe with baclground in parallel computing.

Deorbiting

Current kilaps version is able to simulate classical Langmuir probes in flowing plasmas under non-stationary conditions. Extensions to include emissive probes, the presence of an external magnetic field component along the probe axis and a full electromagnetic description are in progress.

References:

  • G. Sánchez-Arriaga, A direct Vlasov code to study the non-stationary current collection by a cylindrical Langmuir probe, Physics of Plasmas 20, 013504, 2013.
  • G. Sánchez-Arriaga, Direct Vlasov simulations of non-stationary cylindrical Langmuir probes in flowing plasmas, (submited).

The code is currently under register process. Licenses will be distributed by UPM. Please contact to gonzalo.sanchez@upm.es

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EC

An integrating initiative supported under the EC Framework Programme 7