Phobos and Deimos Sample Return Mission Using Solar Electric Propulsion

Oleson, Steven R.; McGuire, Melissa L.; Sarver-Verhey, Tim; Fiehler, Doug; Dankanich, John; Juergens, Jeff; Parkey, Tom; Gyekenyesi, John P.; Gilland, James H.; Colozza, Tony; Packard, Tom; Nguyen, Thahn; Schmitz, Paul

doi:10.2514/6.2009-6518

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Building on the success of solar electric propulsion for NASA's Dawn [11] and JAXA's Hayabusa [12] missions, SEP has been analyzed for a number of missions [13,14,15], including Mercury missions, asteroid sample return, return of samples from the Martian moons Deimos and Phobos [16], and missions to the outer solar system [17,18]. Figure 4 shows one SEP spacecraft design study, the Diminutive Asteroid Visitor Using Ion Drive (DAVID) spacecraft, a small spacecraft designed to do a solar electric propulsion technology demonstration in an asteroid flyby mission [19,20].…”

Section: Robotic Probe Missionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar electric propulsion for future NASA missions

Landis

Oleson

Mercer

2015

2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Use of high-power solar arrays, at power levels up to a megawatt, have been proposed for a solar-electric propulsion (SEP) missions, using photovoltaic arrays to provide energy to high-power xenon-fueled engines. One of the proposed demonstrations of high-power SEP technology is a mission to rendezvous with an asteroid and move it into lunar orbit for human exploration, the Asteroid Redirect mission. NASA's Solar Electric Propulsion project is dedicated to developing critical technologies to enable trips destinations such as Mars or asteroids. NASA needs to reduce the cost of these ambitious exploration missions. High power and high efficiency SEP systems will require much less propellant to meet those requirements.

show abstract

Section: Robotic Probe Missionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar electric propulsion for future NASA missions

Landis

Oleson

Mercer

2015

2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Figure 2 shows the propellant throughput as a function of elapsed time with reference to the NSTAR Extended Life Test (ELT), the requirements from various mission analyses conducted using NEXT propulsion, and the original target NEXT qualification level throughput of 450 kg. [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] One motivation for the continuation of the NEXT LDT is highlighted by the missions requiring thruster throughput capability in excess of 300 kg. As the thruster demonstrates greater throughput capability, new NEXT mission applications are enabled and existing mission concepts that carried additional strings to meet a lifetime requirement can be simplified reducing both spacecraft complexity and cost.…”

Section: A Status and Test Metricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) Long-Duration Test as of 736 kg of Propellant Throughput

Shastry¹,

Herman²,

Soulas³

et al. 2012

48th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference &Amp;amp; Exhibit

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) program is developing the next-generation solar-electric ion propulsion system with significant enhancements beyond the state-of-the-art NASA Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR) ion propulsion system to provide future NASA science missions with enhanced mission capabilities. A Long-Duration Test (LDT) was initiated in June 2005 to validate the thruster service life modeling and to qualify the thruster propellant throughput capability. The thruster has set electric propulsion records for the longest operating duration, highest propellant throughput, and most total impulse demonstrated. At the time of this publication, the NEXT LDT has surpassed 42,100 h of operation, processed more than 736 kg of xenon propellant, and demonstrated greater than 28.1 MN•s total impulse.Thruster performance has been steady with negligible degradation. The NEXT thruster design has mitigated several lifetime limiting mechanisms encountered in the NSTAR design, including the NSTAR first failure mode, thereby drastically improving thruster capabilities. Component erosion rates and the progression of the predicted life-limiting erosion mechanism for the thruster compare favorably to pretest predictions based upon semi-empirical ion thruster models used in the thruster service life assessment. Service life model validation has been accomplished by the NEXT LDT. Assuming full-power operation until test article failure, the models and extrapolated erosion data predict penetration of the accelerator grid grooves after more than 45,000 hours of operation while processing over 800 kg of xenon propellant. Thruster failure due to degradation of the accelerator grid structural integrity is expected after groove penetration.

show abstract