A new ion engine design, called a segmented ion engine, is described which is capable of reducing the required ion source life time for small body rendezvous missions from 18,000 h to about 8,000 h. The use of SAND ion optics for the engine accelerator system makes it possible to substantially reduce the cost of demonstrating the required engine endurance. It is concluded that a flight test of a 5-kW xenon ion propulsion system on the ELITE spacecraft would enormously reduce the cost and risk of using ion propulsion on a planetary vehicle by addressing systems level issues associated with flying a spacecraft radically different from conventional planetary vehicles.
A segmented ion engine design for solar electric propulsion systems
1992-08-01
Conference paper
No indication
English
A Segmented Ion-Propulsion Engine
NTRS | 1992
|RELIABILITY IN DESIGN SOLAR-ELECTRIC PROPULSION SYSTEMS
AIAA | 1966
|Solar Electric Propulsion Stage design
AIAA | 1973
|Geocentric solar electric propulsion vehicle design.
NTRS | 1972
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