An intelligent protection system for plasma detectors on board

Abstract

The present invention discloses an intelligent onboard protection system for a plasma detector, comprising: an integrated protective cover and a nitrogen blowing port, a pressing device, a deployment device, a power supply subsystem and a control subsystem; the protective cover covers the sensor head and has an appearance consistent with the shape of the sensor head; the nitrogen blowing port blows nitrogen into the interior of the sensor during a ground test phase to prevent contamination; the system is sealed with a blocking cap before satellite launch to prevent dust contamination; the pressing device presses the protective cover against the sensor head when the system is in a protection state, and releases the protective cover by thermal cutting according to the instruction of the control subsystem; the deployment device cooperates with the pressing device to realize the deployment of the protective cover, and locks the protective cover after it is released to a specified position; the power supply subsystem supplies power to the pressing device according to the instruction of the control subsystem; the control subsystem periodically collects status monitoring parameters and transmits them to a payload management unit, controls the power on and off of the pressing device according to the ground remote control instruction, and executes the deployment operation of the system.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The key technical field of space plasma detection, in particular, involves an intelligent protection system for plasma detectors on board. Background Art

[0002] The microchannel plate (MCP), a core component within the sensor of a space environment detection plasma detector, amplifies input charge and outputs it to back-end scientific data acquisition electronics, ultimately enabling measurement and analysis of charged particles in the space environment. The MCP structure consists of a large number of micropores, the inner surface of which is coated with a high secondary electron emission coefficient.

[0003] MCPs are hydrophilic, with a fragile surface coating and prone to micropore clogging. They are also very sensitive to environmental cleanliness. Volatile atmospheric gases such as water vapor and carbon dioxide, non-volatile contaminants such as oil and other hydrocarbon molecules, and large dust particles (larger than the microchannel pore size) can contaminate the MCP, leading to performance degradation and shortened service life, seriously impacting the scientific detection objectives of plasma detectors. Therefore, designing protective measures for the MCP is crucial to ensuring the proper detection of plasma detectors.

[0004] Although the ultimate detection condition of the plasma detector is the vacuum environment of space, it needs to be exposed to the atmospheric environment for testing during the ground testing phase. Water vapor, carbon dioxide, etc. in the atmospheric environment will cause pollution to the MCP; in addition, some dust-raising actions after the satellite launch will inevitably cause a large amount of dust and other pollutants to exist in the surrounding environment, which will enter the instrument and cause the MCP to be contaminated.

[0005] Therefore, it is crucial to develop a sensor protection system for the plasma probe to protect the sensors during ground testing and the initial stages of orbital entry. Furthermore, as the core component of the plasma probe, the sensor must effectively receive charged particles in the space environment to enable scientific exploration. Therefore, the protection system must be highly reliable, ensuring it remains operational and active for the duration of scientific exploration. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The purpose of the present invention is to overcome the defects of the prior art and propose an on-board intelligent protection system for plasma detectors.

[0007] In view of this, the present invention proposes an intelligent protection system for a plasma detector on board, comprising: an integrated protective cover and nitrogen blowing port, as well as a pressing device, an unfolding device, a power supply subsystem and a control subsystem;

[0008] The protective cover covers the sensor head, has the same shape as the sensor head, and is larger in size than the sensor head;

[0009] The nitrogen blowing port is used to blow nitrogen into the sensor during the ground testing phase to prevent atmospheric pollution; it is used to seal the sensor with a plugging cap before the satellite is launched to prevent dust pollution during the initial orbit entry;

[0010] The pressing device is used to press the protective cover to the sensor head when the system is in the protection state, and is also used to release the protective cover by thermal cutting according to the instruction of the control subsystem;

[0011] The deployment device is used to cooperate with the pressing device to realize the deployment of the protective cover and lock the protective cover after it is released to a specified position;

[0012] The power supply subsystem is used to supply power to the pressing device according to the instructions of the control subsystem;

[0013] The control subsystem is used to periodically collect status monitoring parameters and transmit them to the load management unit, and is also used to control the power on and off of the clamping device according to the ground remote control instructions received by the load management unit to perform the deployment operation of the system.

[0014] Preferably, the nitrogen blowing port is a hollow cylinder, and the outer side of the cylinder is threaded.

[0015] Preferably, the pressing device comprises a fiber rope, an auxiliary accessory and a power heating cutting device;

[0016] The fiber rope and the accessory are used to cooperate to generate a compression force to resist the expansion torque generated by the expansion device and press the protective cover and the sensor head tightly;

[0017] The power heating cutting device is used to heat up and fuse the fiber rope when the system performs the deployment operation, thereby releasing the counter torque generated by the pressing device and releasing the protective cover;

[0018] Two independent groups of heating wires are arranged in the power heating cutting device, realizing three thermal cutting modes including powering each group of heating wires separately and powering both groups of heating wires simultaneously.

[0019] Preferably, the power supply subsystem includes: a short circuit protection circuit and a magnetic latching relay on-off control module, wherein:

[0020] The short-circuit protection circuit uses two sets of unbalanced parallel fuse paths with the same structure. Each fuse path includes two parallel branches. The first branch consists of two 1Ω / 1W resistors connected in parallel and in series with an MGA-S-125V-2.1A fuse. The second branch consists of an MGA-S-125V-2.1A fuse. In the first branch, a protection circuit monitoring point is drawn from the connection point between the two resistors and the fuse.

[0021] The magnetic latching relay on-off control module includes two 2JB2-1-5B magnetic latching relays, which are connected in series with each group of fuse paths and correspond to a group of heating wires in the power heating cutting device respectively, and are used to independently control the power on and off of the heating wires in the power heating cutting device according to the power on and off signals of the control subsystem.

[0022] Preferably, the control subsystem includes: a heating wire power-off control module, a status monitoring module, an instruction receiving and parsing module, and a data packaging and sending module, wherein:

[0023] The heating wire power on / off control module is used to generate a power-on signal according to a power-on instruction, and generate a power-off signal according to a power-off instruction or an internal timed power-off flag;

[0024] The state monitoring module is used to collect the voltage of the protection circuit monitoring point, the voltage of the compression device temperature monitoring point, and the voltage of the expansion device monitoring point, and package and cache them in the data cache area;

[0025] The instruction receiving and parsing module is used to receive ground remote control instructions, which include power-on instructions, power-off instructions and satellite attitude information, and send the power-on instructions and power-off instructions to the heating wire power on and off control module, and send the satellite attitude information to the data packaging and sending module;

[0026] The data packaging and sending module is used to obtain the status monitoring parameters collected by the sensor from the buffer area, package them with the satellite attitude information, send them to the payload management unit via RS422 according to the set period, and then transmit them to the ground.

[0027] Preferably, the processing of the heating wire power-off control module includes:

[0028] When receiving the power-on instruction A, a first heating wire power-on signal is generated;

[0029] When receiving the power-on instruction B, a second heating wire power-on signal is generated;

[0030] When receiving the power-on command C, a signal is generated to power on two sets of heating wires simultaneously;

[0031] When receiving the power-off command, it generates a power-off signal for both sets of heating wires at the same time;

[0032] When no power-off instruction is received and the power-on time has reached the power-on time stored in the control parameter storage area, a power-off signal for both groups of heating wires is generated;

[0033] When no power-off instruction is received and the heating wire power-on time has not reached the power-on time in the storage area, but has reached the internally set maximum time, a simultaneous power-off signal for the two groups of heating wires is generated.

[0034] Preferably, the state monitoring module controls the AD converter to periodically collect the voltage of the monitoring points; the monitoring points include: protection circuit state monitoring point, protection system temperature monitoring point and protection system deployment state monitoring point; wherein,

[0035] The protection circuit status monitoring point is a protection circuit monitoring point derived from the first branch of the fuse path of the power supply subsystem;

[0036] The temperature monitoring point of the protection system is a monitoring point drawn between the thermistor and the 4.7kΩ resistor in series, wherein the thermistor is MF5802, which is connected in series with the 4.7kΩ resistor and pulled up to 5V;

[0037] The deployment status monitoring point of the protection system is a monitoring point drawn from the middle of a micro switch and a 4.7 kΩ resistor connected in series, wherein the micro switch and the 4.7 kΩ resistor are connected in series and pulled up to 5 V.

[0038] Preferably, the unfolding device includes: a spring hinge, a limiting device and a dust cover, wherein:

[0039] The spring hinge is used to generate a driving torque to spring open the protective cover, and is locked after the protective cover is deployed to a specified position;

[0040] The limiting device is used to ensure that the locking hook is locked after the protective cover is deployed in place to prevent the protective cover from rebounding after deployment;

[0041] The dust cover is used to prevent space dust and pollutants from entering the spring hinge, causing the spring hinge to get stuck and affecting the deployment of the protection system.

[0042] Compared with the prior art, the advantages of the present invention are:

[0043] 1. The present invention designs an intelligent onboard protection system for plasma detectors. In response to ground testing requirements, a nitrogen blowing port is designed to provide nitrogen blowing protection for the MCP during the ground testing phase. In response to the dust environment during launch and the initial stage of orbital entry, an onboard status monitoring and remote control deployment system is designed to enable on-orbit deployment of the protection system when the environmental conditions are good.

[0044] 2. This invention incorporates different backup plans for both powering on and deploying the protection system, as well as powering off after deployment. The heating wires used for deployment are designed with two independent power supply subsystems and two independent heating wires, enabling three different power-on plans. After deployment, the heating wires are de-energized using three different power-off plans within the control system. These different power-on and power-off plans effectively ensure smooth and safe deployment of the protection system on track. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0045] Figure 1 This is a block diagram of the plasma detector onboard intelligent protection system;

[0046] Figure 2 It is a plasma detector with an onboard intelligent protection system;

[0047] Figure 3 It is a block diagram of the power supply subsystem;

[0048] Figure 4 It is the principle block diagram of the control subsystem;

[0049] Figure 5 It is a heating wire plus power-off flow chart. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0050] The present invention overcomes the problem that the MCP is easily contaminated by water vapor, carbon dioxide, oil and other hydrocarbon molecules, large dust particles and the like in the working environment, which causes the detection performance of the plasma detector to degrade or be lost, and proposes an intelligent protection system for the plasma detector sensor.

[0051] The appearance of the plasma detector intelligent protection system is consistent with the shape of the sensor head, with the edge fitting tightly against the sensor head and the protective cover covering the sensor head. A small nitrogen blowing port is designed on the top of the protection system to achieve atmospheric pollution protection. Nitrogen blowing is an effective way to prevent MCP from being contaminated. During the ground atmospheric environment testing phase, dry and clean high-purity nitrogen is actively and continuously blown into the sensor through the nitrogen blowing port, which can effectively reduce the content of polluted gases around the MCP, thereby achieving the purpose of MCP pollution prevention. Stop blowing nitrogen before the satellite is launched, and seal the nitrogen blowing port with a protective cap to achieve the purpose of ground testing of the sensor and the initial protection of the sensor in the orbit. After the satellite enters orbit, when the vacuum and cleanliness of the surrounding environment meet the working conditions of the plasma detector, the intelligent protection system is automatically deployed to the designated position on the satellite through the remote control command injected from the ground.

[0052] The plasma detector's onboard intelligent protection system includes a protective cover, nitrogen inlet, clamping device, deployment device, power supply, and control system. In an environment with a contaminant source, the intelligent protection system closes, the protective cover fits tightly against the sensor, and the clamping device locks. The control system periodically collects and returns status monitoring parameters. Once the ground control system determines that the environmental conditions meet the plasma detector sensor's performance requirements, it injects remote control commands from the ground. The control system, in accordance with the received commands, controls the power supply system to supply power to the clamping device, which then cooperates with the deployment device to deploy the protection system.

[0053] The clamping device includes a power-heating cutting device with two independent heating wires, enabling three different thermal cutting modes: heating wire 1 powered alone, heating wire 2 powered alone, and heating wires 1 and 2 powered simultaneously. The power supply system incorporates independent protection circuits and a power-on / off control module. The protection system incorporates temperature and deployment status monitoring points on the clamping device, as well as protection circuit status monitoring points within the power supply system. The control system periodically collects monitoring parameters and transmits them along with satellite attitude information received from the payload management unit. Once the satellite is in orbit, control decisions are made based on these monitoring parameters and satellite attitude information to control the deployment of the protection system.

[0054] The technical solution of the present invention is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0055] Example

[0056] The present invention provides an intelligent protection system for a plasma detector on a satellite, including a protective cover, a nitrogen blowing port, a pressing device, an expansion device, a power supply subsystem, and a control subsystem. Figure 1 , Figure 2 shown.

[0057] The protective cover is consistent with the shape of the sensor head, and its outer dimensions are slightly larger than the outer contour of the sensor. In the closed state, the protective cover is tightly combined with the sensor, and the clamping device is in a clamped state.

[0058] The nitrogen port and protective cover are integrally machined. The port is a hollow cylinder of a defined length. In actual use, nitrogen can be injected into the protective cover after the port is connected to the nitrogen blowing line. To prevent the nitrogen blowing line from loosening once connected, the outer surface of the hollow cylinder is threaded, effectively increasing the friction coefficient and resistance.

[0059] The clamping device includes: a fiber rope, a power heating cutting device and its accessories. The main function of the clamping device is to use the fiber rope and accessories to generate a clamping force when the plasma detector onboard intelligent protection system is in the protection (closed) state, to counteract the deployment torque generated by the deployment device, and to compress the protective cover and the sensor head. When the plasma detector onboard intelligent protection system needs to perform a deployment operation, the power heating cutting device heats up, melts the fiber rope, and releases the counter torque generated by the clamping device, thereby achieving the purpose of releasing the protective cover. The power heating cutting device has a main and standby heating wire inside. The two heating wires are powered independently, which can realize the functions of heating a single heating wire and heating two heating wires at the same time.

[0060] The deployment mechanism consists of a spring hinge, a stopper, and a dust cover. Its primary function is to generate a driving torque. Once the clamping mechanism is unlocked, the spring hinge's driving torque forces the shield to open. Once deployed, it locks in place. The spring hinge's driving torque is designed to be at least three times greater than the spring hinge's own resistance torque. The stopper ensures that the locking hook locks securely once the shield is fully deployed, preventing it from rebounding. A dust cover is also designed to protect the deployment mechanism from the effects of lunar dust and other space particles.

[0061] like Figure 3 As shown, the main function of the power supply subsystem is to provide primary power for the power heating cutting device of the pressing device. The power supply system has a short-circuit protection circuit, a protection circuit monitoring point, and a magnetic latching relay on-off control module. The short-circuit protection circuit realizes the short-circuit protection function by adopting two sets of unbalanced parallel fuse paths. The fuse path (1) is designed to be two 1Ω / 1W resistors connected in parallel and then connected in series with an MGA-S-125V-2.1A fuse. The fuse path (2) is an MGA-S-125V-2.1A fuse. The connection point between the two 1Ω / 1W resistors in the fuse path (1) and the MGA-S-125V-2.1A fuse leads to the protection circuit monitoring point. The protection circuit monitoring point is used to monitor the status of the short-circuit protection circuit. The magnetic latching relay 2JB2-1-5B on-off control module can independently control the power on and off of the two heating wires according to the power on and off signals of the control system.

[0062] like Figure 4 As shown, the control subsystem includes a heating wire and power-off control module, a status monitoring module, an instruction receiving and parsing module, and a data packaging and sending module.

[0063] The command receiving and parsing module can receive remote control power-on commands, power-off commands, and satellite attitude information from the payload management unit, and transmit the power-on and power-off signals of the clamping device to the heating wire power-on and power-off control module, and transmit the attitude information to the data packaging and sending module.

[0064] The heating wire power-on and power-off control module independently controls the corresponding relay to close and power on the target heating wire according to the power-on command received. To ensure that the heating wire is powered off in time after the protection system is turned on, the heating wire power-on and power-off control module is designed with three different power-off strategies:

[0065] Strategy (1): After receiving the power-off command, the control relay is disconnected;

[0066] Strategy (2): If no power-off command is received and the power-on time has reached the power-on time stored in the control parameter storage area, the control relay is disconnected;

[0067] Strategy (3): If the power-off command is not received, the heating wire power-on time has not reached the power-on time in the storage area, but has reached the maximum time allowed by the program, 120 seconds, then the control relay is disconnected;

[0068] The specific process is as follows Figure 5 As shown, this design can effectively ensure that the heating wire is smoothly powered off after the protection system is deployed, avoiding damage to the equipment due to excessive heating time.

[0069] The telemetry status acquisition module in the status monitoring module controls the A / D converter to periodically collect the voltages of the protection circuit monitoring status, the protection system temperature monitoring point, and the protection system deployment status monitoring point, and then stores them in the data buffer. The temperature monitoring point uses an MF5802 thermistor in series with a 4.7kΩ resistor, which is pulled up to 5V. The monitoring point is connected between the thermistor and the 4.7kΩ resistor. The deployment status monitoring point uses a microswitch in series with a 4.7kΩ resistor, which is pulled up to 5V. The monitoring point is connected between the microswitch and the 4.7kΩ resistor.

[0070] The data packaging and sending module sends the collected data to the payload management unit through the RS422 interface at a period of 1s / packet, and then transmits it to the ground control system.

[0071] It is worth noting that in the embodiment of the above system, the modules included are only divided according to functional logic, but are not limited to the above division, as long as the corresponding functions can be achieved; in addition, the specific names of the functional modules are only for the convenience of distinguishing each other, and are not used to limit the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0072] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are intended only to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the embodiments, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that modifications or equivalent substitutions to the technical solutions of the present invention do not depart from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the present invention and are intended to be encompassed by the claims of the present invention.

Claims

1. A plasma detector with an onboard intelligent protection system, characterized in that: include: Microchannel plate, integrated protective cover and nitrogen blowing port, as well as compression device, deployment device, power supply subsystem and control subsystem; The microchannel plate is a core component inside the sensor of the space environment detection plasma detector. It is used to amplify the input charge and output it to the back-end scientific data acquisition electronics, ultimately realizing the measurement and analysis of charged particles in the space environment. The structure of the microchannel plate is composed of a large number of micropores, and the inner surface of the micropores is coated with a high secondary electron emission coefficient. The protective cover covers the sensor head, has the same shape as the sensor head, and is larger in size than the sensor head; The nitrogen blowing port is used to continuously blow nitrogen into the sensor during the ground testing phase, effectively reducing the content of pollutant gases around the microchannel plate, thereby achieving the purpose of preventing the microchannel plate from being contaminated. It is also used to seal the satellite with a plugging cap before launch to prevent dust contamination during the initial stage of orbit entry. The pressing device is used to press the protective cover to the sensor head when the system is in the protection state, and is also used to release the protective cover by thermal cutting according to the instruction of the control subsystem; The deployment device is used to cooperate with the pressing device to realize the deployment of the protective cover and lock the protective cover after it is released to a specified position; The power supply subsystem is used to supply power to the pressing device according to the instructions of the control subsystem; The control subsystem is used to periodically collect status monitoring parameters and transmit them to the payload management unit, and is also used to control the power on and off of the clamping device according to the ground remote control instructions received by the payload management unit to perform the deployment operation of the system; The control subsystem includes: a heating wire power-off control module and a status monitoring module; wherein, The heating wire power on / off control module is used to generate a power-on signal according to a power-on instruction, and generate a power-off signal according to a power-off instruction or an internal timed power-off flag; The state monitoring module is used to collect the voltage of the protection circuit monitoring point, the voltage of the compression device temperature monitoring point, and the voltage of the expansion device monitoring point, and package and cache them in the data cache area; The processing process of the heating wire and power-off control module includes: When receiving the power-on instruction A, a first heating wire power-on signal is generated; When receiving the power-on instruction B, a second heating wire power-on signal is generated; When receiving the power-on command C, a signal is generated to power on two sets of heating wires simultaneously; When receiving the power-off command, it generates a power-off signal for both sets of heating wires at the same time; When no power-off instruction is received and the power-on time has reached the power-on time stored in the control parameter storage area, a power-off signal for both groups of heating wires is generated; When no power-off command is received and the heating wire power-on time has not reached the power-on time in the storage area, but has reached the internally set maximum time, a simultaneous power-off signal for the two groups of heating wires is generated; The state monitoring module controls the AD converter to periodically collect the voltage of the monitoring points; the monitoring points include: protection circuit state monitoring point, protection system temperature monitoring point and protection system deployment state monitoring point; wherein, The protection circuit status monitoring point is a protection circuit monitoring point derived from the first branch of the fuse path of the power supply subsystem; The temperature monitoring point of the protection system is a monitoring point drawn between the thermistor and the 4.7kΩ resistor in series, wherein the thermistor is MF5802, which is connected in series with the 4.7kΩ resistor and pulled up to 5V; The deployment status monitoring point of the protection system is a monitoring point drawn from the middle of a micro switch and a 4.7 kΩ resistor connected in series, wherein the micro switch and the 4.7 kΩ resistor are connected in series and pulled up to 5 V.

2. The plasma detector with an onboard intelligent protection system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The nitrogen blowing port is a hollow cylinder, and the outer side of the cylinder is threaded.

3. The plasma detector with an onboard intelligent protection system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The compacting device includes a fiber rope, auxiliary accessories and a power heating cutting device; The fiber rope and the accessory are used to cooperate to generate a compression force to resist the expansion torque generated by the expansion device and press the protective cover and the sensor head tightly; The power heating cutting device is used to heat up and fuse the fiber rope when the system performs the deployment operation, thereby releasing the counter torque generated by the pressing device and releasing the protective cover; Two independent groups of heating wires are arranged in the power heating cutting device, realizing three thermal cutting modes including powering each group of heating wires separately and powering both groups of heating wires simultaneously.

4. The plasma detector with an onboard intelligent protection system according to claim 3, characterized in that: The power supply subsystem includes: a short circuit protection circuit and a magnetic latching relay on-off control module, wherein: The short-circuit protection circuit uses two sets of unbalanced parallel fuse paths with the same structure. Each fuse path includes two parallel branches. The first branch consists of two 1Ω / 1W resistors connected in parallel and in series with an MGA-S-125V-2.1A fuse. The second branch consists of an MGA-S-125V-2.1A fuse. In the first branch, a protection circuit monitoring point is drawn from the connection point between the two resistors and the fuse. The magnetic latching relay on-off control module includes two 2JB2-1-5B magnetic latching relays, which are connected in series with each group of fuse paths and correspond to a group of heating wires in the power heating cutting device respectively, and are used to independently control the power on and off of the heating wires in the power heating cutting device according to the power on and off signals of the control subsystem.

5. The plasma detector with an onboard intelligent protection system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The control subsystem also includes: an instruction receiving and parsing module and a data packaging and sending module, wherein: The instruction receiving and parsing module is used to receive ground remote control instructions, which include power-on instructions, power-off instructions and satellite attitude information, and send the power-on instructions and power-off instructions to the heating wire power on and off control module, and send the satellite attitude information to the data packaging and sending module; The data packaging and sending module is used to obtain the status monitoring parameters collected by the sensor from the buffer area, package them with the satellite attitude information, send them to the payload management unit via RS422 according to the set period, and then transmit them to the ground.

6. The plasma detector with an onboard intelligent protection system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The unfolding device includes: a spring hinge, a limiting device and a dust cover, wherein: The spring hinge is used to generate a driving torque to spring open the protective cover, and is locked after the protective cover is deployed to a specified position; The limiting device is used to ensure that the locking hook is locked after the protective cover is deployed in place to prevent the protective cover from rebounding after deployment; The dust cover is used to prevent space dust and pollutants from entering the spring hinge, causing the spring hinge to get stuck and affecting the deployment of the protection system.

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