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.
Application of solar electric propulsion to future planetary missions
Anwendung des Sonnenenergieantriebs fuer kuenftige interplanetare Missionen
AIAA-Papers ; May ; 1-11
1987
11 Seiten, 10 Bilder, 7 Tabellen, 6 Quellen
Conference paper
English