This paper examines the benefit that a solar electric propulsion (SEP) system based on the 5 kW Xenon Ion Propulsion System (XIPS) could have for NASA's Discovery class deep space missions. The relative cost and performance of the commercial heritage XIPS system is compared to NSTAR ion thruster based systems on three Discovery class reference missions: 1) a Near Earth Asteroid Sample Return, 2) a Comet Rendezvous and 3) a Main Belt Asteroid Rendezvous. It is found that systems utilizing a single operating XIPS thruster provides significant performance advantages over a single operating NSTAR thruster. In fact, XIPS performs as well as systems utilizing two operating NSTAR thrusters, and still costs less than the NSTAR system with a single operating thruster. This makes XIPS based SEP a competitive and attractive candidate for Discovery class science missions.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Performance Evaluation of an Expanded Range XIPS Ion Thruster System for NASA Science Missions


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    42nd AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit ; 2006 ; Sacramento, CA, United States


    Publication date :

    2006-07-09


    Type of media :

    Preprint


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Performance Evaluation of the XIPS 25-cm Thruster for Application to NASA Discovery Missions

    Tighe, W. / Chien, K. / Solis, E. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2006


    Performance Evaluation of the XIPS 25-cm Thruster for Application to NASA Discovery Missions

    Tighe, William / Chien, Kuei-Ru / Solis, Ezequiel et al. | AIAA | 2006



    Performance Evaluation of an Expanded Range XIPS Ion Thruster System for NASA Science Missions

    Oh, D. / Goebel, D. / American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2006


    Qualification of Commercial XIPS Ion Thrusters for NASA Deep Space Missions

    Goebel, Dan / Polk, James / Wirz, Richard et al. | AIAA | 2008