A Study of Various Mitigation Strategies For RF Communications Blackout Phenomenon

Abstract

In any aerospace application, the vehicle travelling in space, upon re-entry is subjected to high temperatures and high pressures. The matter surrounding the re-entry vehicle due to high temperature and pressure gets converted into the plasma state and results in high attenuation of electromagnetic signals. This phenomenon is called a Radiofrequency (RF) blackout. Radiofrequency blackout has critical implications during the reentry phase of space vehicles or missiles. In this paper, the RF blackout phenomenon is discussed with an emphasis on mitigation techniques. Shapes of the re-entry vehicle, higher frequency communication, electrophiles, magnetic windowing, and metamaterials have been discussed and compared. The comparison is performed with respect to weight, complexity, cost, and attenuation performance. Metamaterial-based mitigation technique has low design complexity, weight, cost, and attenuation performance and can provide minimum RF blackout time.