NASA has been investigating potential translunar excursion concepts to take place in the 2020s that would be used to test and demonstrate long duration life support and other systems needed for eventual Mars missions in the 2030s. These potential trajectory concepts could be conducted in the proving ground, a region of cislunar and near-Earth interplanetary space where international space agencies could cooperate to develop the technologies needed for interplanetary spaceflight. Enabled by high power Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) technologies, the excursion trajectory concepts studied are grouped into three classes of increasing distance from the Earth and increasing technical difficulty: the first class of excursion trajectory concepts would represent a 90-120 day round trip trajectory with abort to Earth options throughout the entire length, the second class would be a 180-210 day round trip trajectory with periods in which aborts would not be available, and the third would be a 300-400 day round trip trajectory without aborts for most of the length of the trip. This paper provides a top-level summary of the trajectory and mission design of representative example missions of these three classes of excursion trajectory concepts.
Potential Cislunar and Interplanetary Proving Ground Excursion Trajectory Concepts
2016
11 pages
Report
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Astronautics , Spacecraft Trajectories & Flight Mechanics , Astronomy & Astrophysics , Extraterrestrial Exploration , Cislunar space , Interplanetary space , Long duration space flight , Life support systems , Crew exploration vehicle , Space habitats , Solar electric propulsion , Round trip trajectories , Trajectory analysis , Technology assessment , Manned mars missions , Mission planning
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