The use of Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) can provide significant benefits for the human exploration of near-Earth asteroids. These benefits include substantial cost savings - represented by a significant reduction in the mass required to be lifted to low Earth orbit - and increased mission flexibility. To achieve these benefits, system power levels of 100's of kW are necessary along with the capability to store and process tens of thousands of kilograms of xenon propellant. The paper presents a conceptual design of a 300-kW SEP vehicle, with the capability to store nearly 40,000 kg of xenon, to support human missions to near-Earth asteroids.
300-kW Solar Electric Propulsion System Configuration for Human Exploration of Near-Earth Asteroids
AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference ; 2011 ; San Diego, CA, United States
2011-07-31
Conference paper
No indication
English
Human Exploration of Near-Earth Asteroids Via Solar Electric Propulsion (AAS 11-102)
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2011
|Human exploration of near earth asteroids: Mission analysis for chemical and electric propulsion
Online Contents | 2014
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