US Patent Issued to Massachusetts Institute of Technology on April 15 for "Gas injection system for plasma blackout alleviation studies" (Maryland, Massachusetts Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,278,416, issued on April 15, was assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Mass.).

"Gas injection system for plasma blackout alleviation studies" was invented by Humberto L. Caldelas II (Severn, Md.) and Wesley Harris (Cambridge, Mass.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A test article described herein enables ground-based arc jet testing to investigate RF blackout mitigation using electrophilic gas injection upstream of an antenna. The article can be scaled up to actual flight vehicles, thereby allowing reentry vehicles to be in constant, or near constant, communication during atmospheric reentry. Plasma blackout mitigatio...