Solar Electric Propulsion Demonstration Mission Using a Minotaur IV Launch Vehicle

A Direct Drive Experiment as Part of a SEP Demonstration

“…The SEP TDM SV architecture is a modular, single string design with use of selective redundancy at critical points to prevent credible single-point failures. [1][2][3] All non-payload subsystems have direct flight heritage and large performance margins to reduce risk, given risk posture of this Category 3, Class D mission. To reduce cost, Space Vehicle hardware is flight-ready through protoflight testing in flight-like environments or flight-qualified at the component level.…”

“…A near-term flight demonstration mission validates SEP for near-term applications and firmly establishes the 'capability.' The SEP Technology Demonstration Mission (TDM) SV [1][2][3] concept was developed for NASA in response to their BAA [4]. The SEP TDM Space Vehicle (SV) operates in geocentric (near-Earth) space starting at an altitude of 400 km, a likely orbit for a staging location or departure orbit for a SEP tug, and transits through the radiation and plasma belts out to GEO then returns to LEO [5].…”