Recent NASA interest in human missions to Mars has led to an Evolvable Mars Campaign by the agency's Human Architecture Team. Delivering the crew return propulsion stages and Mars surface landers, SEP based systems are employed because of their high specific impulse characteristics enabling missions requiring less propellant although with longer transfer times. The Earth departure trajectories start from an SLS launch vehicle delivery orbit and are spiral shaped because of the low SEP thrust. Previous studies have led to interest in assessing the divide in trip time between the Earth departure and interplanetary legs of the mission for a representative SEP cargo vehicle.
Mission Design Considerations for Mars Cargo of the Human Spaceflight Architecture Team's Evolvable Mars Campaign
2016
38 pages
Report
No indication
English
Astronautics , Spacecraft Trajectories & Flight Mechanics , Space Technology , Manned mars missions , Manned spacecraft , Spacecraft propulsion , Solar electric propulsion , Specific impulse , Chemical propulsion , Propulsive efficiency , Orbit determination , Trajectory analysis , Mission planning , Feasibility analysis