Mitigating Aerospace Vehicle Communication Blackout by an Experimental Demonstration of ‘Magnetic Windows’

The primary purpose of the second-year effort would be to experimentally test our hypothesis: if we pump a magnetically-anisotropic plasma with an RF LG beam, then we will observe a reduction in RF propagation loss. In response to our observations, a power-cost analysis will be performed to determine if widening magnetic windows with RF energy is significantly more efficient than using more DC current to achieve the same amount of RF transparency. Deliverables would include an OAM-generating antenna with an integrated DC solenoid ‒ a progression from our current, 3D-printed, miniaturized cantenna design. Additionally, RF propagation parameters of the laboratory plasma would be experimentally obtained to determine, by link budget analysis, if a 2-Mbps data rate could be achieved in a space flight demonstration. Such metrics include: insertion loss due to power absorption, harmonic and intermodulation distortion due to interaction with a nonlinear medium, and polarization rotation due to the Faraday effect.

A successful plasma-vortex-tunnel generating antenna system will enable communication through an RF blackout at unprecedented data rates — 10x faster than Space Shuttle; infinitely faster than SpaceX Dragon — because lessons cannot be learned from mission-terminating events if critical data is not collected.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 5) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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