A trade study was performed at NASA Langley Research Center under the Planetary Airplane Risk Reduction (PARR) project (2004-2005) to examine the option of using multiple, smaller thrusters in place of a single large thruster on the Mars airplane concept with the goal to reduce overall cost, schedule, and technical risk. The 5-lbf (22N) thruster is a common reaction control thruster on many satellites. Thousands of these types of thrusters have been built and flown on numerous programs, including MILSTAR and Intelsat VI. This study has examined the use of three 22N thrusters for the Mars airplane propulsion system and compared the results to those of the baseline single thruster system.
Trade Study of Multiple Thruster Options for the Mars Airplane Concept
2009
77 pages
Report
No indication
English
Aircraft , Test Facilities & Equipment , Combustion, Engines, & Propellants , Thrustors , Propulsion system configurations , Aircraft structures , Rocket thrust , Advanced reconn electric spacecraft , Thermal analysis , Acceleration , Payloads , Propulsion system performance , Finite element method , Structural weight , Boundary conditions , Liquid rocket propellants