An approach is presented for eliminating communication blackout caused by the plasma sheath encountered during the Mars atmospheric entry phase. On the basis of the high penetration of X-ray beams, the expectation was to avoid communication interruptions by establishing an X-ray communication link between the Mars orbiter and the entry vehicle. In this study, the plasma penetration performance of X-rays is evaluated based on the numerical method. The transmission properties of an X-ray beam in the Martian atmosphere were assessed based on the Monte Carlo simulation. The performance of X-ray communication links in the blackout region is evaluated, and the minimum transmitting power required for low bit-error-rate communication is obtained. The results show that an X-ray beam can not only pass through the plasma sheath generated during the atmospheric entry phase without attenuation but also penetrate the atmosphere and establish a stable communication link between a Mars orbiter and the entry vehicle.


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    Title :

    Novel Approach for Mars Entry Blackout Elimination Based on X-Ray Communication


    Contributors:
    Hang, Shuang (author) / Tang, Xiaobin (author) / Li, Huan (author) / Liu, Yunpeng (author) / Mu, Junxu (author) / Zhou, Wei (author)

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2019-09-01




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English





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