Investigation of the standoff distance of the bow shock in a laboratory space science experiment

The interaction between the solar wind and unmagnetized planet will be studied in laboratory conditions using a 6 kJ pulsed-power system in Institute of Space and Plasma Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. The experiment will be implemented by generating a supersonic plasma flow with Mach number up to 20 using a conical wire array flowing through an obstacle. We use the semi-empirical model to determine the standoff distance of the bow shock produced by the supersonic plasma jet around a spherical obstacle. Factors that influence the standoff distance will be analyzed. This result will be used for designing future experiments.