Guan Yibing (earth And Space Exploration Technology) Directed By Professor Wang Shijin

With the progress of space science, the space environment has been related to the human activities closely. Most of the matters in the space exist as the plasma state, and the ionosphere plasma is the closest to the humanity. Langmuir probe is a simple payload detecting the space plasma, which could get the plasma parameters such as electron density, electron temperature, spacecraft potential and so on. The Langmuir probe has been extensively used in the ionosphere and interplanetary exploration missions, but this payload has not been used in the space missions of China before.Langmuir probe is a simple payload, but there are many complex complications obstructing its measurement of the space plasma, such as the complex Langmuir probe theory, the design of the sensor, the design of the electronics, the effect of the spacecraft potential, the date analysis method, the test of the calibration and so on, each of which is vital for the measurement. After investigating all the complications above, a proto type Langmuir probe had been designed. A parameterization formula of Langmuir probe theory had been used for the design of the sensor and its data analysis program, which release the constraint of the Debye Length to the diameter of the sensor. A simulation of the proto Langmuir probe had been done by the SPIS software. In addition, the effect of the spacecraft potential to the Langmuir probe measurement had been investigated, and the handing methods had been suggested. The Langmuir probe onboard a sounding rocket had been designed and developed, for which a series test had been done. This is the first Langmuir probe of China for the ionosphere measurement.The Langmuir probe onboard a satellite has been designed and is developing, which partly inherited the Langmuir probe onboard the sounding rocket. That will be the first Langmuir probe of China as a payload on a satellite. The double probes will be used for the satellite: a big one and a small one, which is a new design. In the end, the problem about potential difference for the spacecrafts docking has been investigated, and a solution and the spacecraft potential monitor method based on Langmuir probe have been suggested.