Highly propellant-efficient electric propulsion is being combined with advanced solar power technology to provide a non-nuclear transportation option for the human exploration of Mars. By virtue of its high specific impulse, electric propulsion offers a greater change in spacecraft velocity for each pound of propellant than do conventional chemical rockets. As a result, a mission to Mars based on solar electric propulsion (SEP) would require fewer heavy-lift launches than a traditional all-chemical space propulsion scenario would. Performance, as measured by mass to orbit and trip time, would be comparable to the NASA design reference mission for human Mars exploration, which utilizes nuclear thermal propulsion; but it would avoid the issues surrounding the use of nuclear reactors in space.


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    Title :

    Solar Electric Propulsion for Mars Exploration


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    1998-04-01


    Type of media :

    Miscellaneous


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English






    Photographic exploration of Mars with solar- electric propulsion.

    Prasthofer, W. P. / Vachon, R. I. / Wood, L. H. | NTRS | 1968


    Photographic exploration of Mars with solar- electric propulsion.

    Prasthofer, W. P. / Vachon, R. I. / Wood, L. H. | NTRS | 1967


    Photographic exploration of Mars with solar- electric propulsion

    PRASTHOFER, W. / VACHON, R. / WOOD, L.H. | AIAA | 1967