Atmosphere Breathing Electric Propulsion; ABEP; intake design; Very Low Earth Orbit; VLEO; Gas Surface Interaction; GSI; Direct Simulation Monte Carlo; DSMC; Cercignani-Lampis-Lord model; Maxwell model; accommodation coefficient; atomic oxygen contamination; satellite aerodynamics; collection efficiency; compression ratio; surrogate modeling; Gaussian Process Regression; GPR; Machine Learning; Rational Quadratic kernel; Radial Basis Function kernel; rarefied gas dynamics; SPARTA solver; NRLMSISE-00 atmosphere model; Monte Carlo simulation; surface scattering; satellite drag; intake performance prediction; surrogate model validation; accelerated design exploration     «

Atmosphere Breathing Electric Propulsion; ABEP; intake design; Very Low Earth Orbit; VLEO; Gas Surface Interaction; GSI; Direct Simulation Monte Carlo; DSMC; Cercignani-Lampis-Lord model; Maxwell model; accommodation coefficient; atomic oxygen contamination; satellite aerodynamics; collection efficiency; compression ratio; surrogate modeling; Gaussian Process Regression; GPR; Machine Learning; Rational Quadratic kernel; Radial Basis Function kernel; rarefied gas dynamics;...     »

This study investigates the performance of an Atmosphere Breathing Electric Propulsion intake in Very Low Earth Orbit. In the first part, two gas surface interaction models, the Maxwell model and the Cercignani-Lampis-Lord model, are compared to assess their impact on intake performance, accounting for more or less realistic accommodation coefficients and surface interactions. In the second part, the high-fidelity Direct Simulation Monte Carlo results from the Maxwell model are used as training dataset for the Gaussian Process Regression algorithm. Thus, a surrogate model is developed for predicting intake collection efficiency and compression ratios across varying altitudes (160-220 km), conic slope angles (12–20°), and gas surface interaction conditions, which indirectly accounts for the effect of surface contamination by atomic oxygen. This surrogate model aims at enabling rapid evaluation of intake performance while capturing trends due to altitude, geometry, and surface interactions. This work represents an initial framework that can be extended in future studies to include additional geometric and operational parameters, supporting accelerated atmosphere breathing electric propulsion intake design and mission analysis.     «

This study investigates the performance of an Atmosphere Breathing Electric Propulsion intake in Very Low Earth Orbit. In the first part, two gas surface interaction models, the Maxwell model and the Cercignani-Lampis-Lord model, are compared to assess their impact on intake performance, accounting for more or less realistic accommodation coefficients and surface interactions. In the second part, the high-fidelity Direct Simulation Monte Carlo results from the Maxwell model are used as training...     »