Vietnamese, Japanese scientists protect satellites, spacecraft from heat

Their study has been published on the British weekly scientific journal Nature, which describes itself the world's leading multidisciplinary science journal.

In the study, Trang, who works at the Institute of Research and Development at Duy Tan University in Da Nang, and the other four authors, Yasuhiro Suzuki, Hiroki Hasegawa, Toseo Moritaka and Hiroaki Ohtani, said: "Reducing high electron and ion heat fluxes is one of the critical issues for shielding satellites and spacecraft, and one of the ideas for shielding high particle and heat fluxes is to apply an external magnetic field generated by injecting current filaments."

In their experiment, the scientists injected current filaments to change the magnetic field structure of the system and then they compared particle density, particle flux, and heat flux to a test without injecting the current filaments.

"Based on the simulation results, we found that injecting current filaments can reduce the peak fluxes to the wall and transfer some of those fluxes along the wall. Therefore, injecting the current filaments is a good candidate for shielding satellites and spacecraft from high-energy ion and electron fluxes," said the study.

Trang told VnExpress that the study proves the potential for reducing high-energy particles reaching material surfaces, and this could play a crucial role in shielding spacecraft or satellites from high-energy particles. She said the method could hopefully be applied in reality one day.

"The research team will conduct more feasibility studies on it," she said.

Many scientists have pursued studies to find new materials or solutions to protect the surface of satellites and spacecraft.

NASA has worked on a carbon-fiber cloth, while Chinese scientists have developed a new type of double-layer polyimide nanocomposite film for the mission.