Application of solar electric propulsion (SEP) to several near term planetary missions has been investigated and is described in this paper. The missions under consideration include a comet rendezvous-asteroid fly by mission (CRAF), an orbiter mission to Saturn (CASSINI) and a comet nucleus sample return mission (CNSR). Advances in both thruster and solar array technology indicate that these missions could benefit by use of a moderate size solar electric propulsion system. The trajectory scenarios considered in this paper include a solar electric Earth gravity assist (SEEGA) mode for all three missions and a SEP rendezvous mode for both the CRAF and CNSR missions. In addition an all SEP propulsion mode and a hybrid SEP - chemical propulsion mode is described for the CNSR mission.


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    Title :

    Application of solar electric propulsion to future planetary missions


    Additional title:

    Anwendung des Sonnenenergieantriebs fuer kuenftige interplanetare Missionen


    Contributors:
    Sauer, C. (author)

    Published in:

    AIAA-Papers ; May ; 1-11


    Publication date :

    1987


    Size :

    11 Seiten, 10 Bilder, 7 Tabellen, 6 Quellen


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English