Plasma Effect on Radiofrequency Communications for Lifting Reentry Vehicles

The present work investigates plasma effects around two lifting hypersonic vehicles and their implications on the radiofrequency communication blackout performances during the Earth atmospheric reentry phase. In particular, the Intermediate Experimental Vehicle developed by the European Space Agency and a slender, high lift-over-drag space plane, investigated during previous studies, have been taken into account. Chemical nonequilibrium analyses have been carried out by means of a numerical code, updated with a customized chemical model comprised of several reacting species and different reaction mechanisms. Different flight conditions, including the most critical for communications, have been considered for both vehicles. The main outcomes of the study show that, for very similar freestream conditions, the slender space plane exhibits better communication capabilities when compared with the Intermediate Experimental Vehicle. Particularly, the results suggest that the Intermediate Experimental Vehicle would be able to communicate from the lee side for a limited range of the angle of sight, while no communications from the wind side would be possible. On the other hand, for the slender space plane, flying at relatively low angles of attack, communications are possible either from the lee side or the wind side with very wide angles of sight.