A detailed study examines the potential benefits that advanced electric propulsion (EP) technologies offer to the cost-capped missions in NASA's Discovery program. The study looks at potential cost and performance benefits provided by three EP technologies that are currently in development: NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT), an Enhanced NSTAR system, and a Low Power Hall effect thruster. These systems are analyzed on three straw man Discovery class missions and their performance is compared to a state of the art system using the NSTAR ion thruster. An electric propulsion subsystem cost model is used to conduct a cost-benefit analysis for each option. The results show that each proposed technology offers a different degree of performance and/or cost benefit for Discovery class missions.
Evaluation of solar electric propulsion technologies for discovery class missions
41st AIAA/ASME/SEA/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit ; 2005 ; Tucson, AZ, United States
2005-07-10
Conference paper
No indication
English
Evaluation of Solar Electric Propulsion Technologies for Discovery-Class Missions
Online Contents | 2007
|Evaluation of Solar Electric Propulsion Technologies for Discovery Class Missions
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