Application of Solar Electric Propulsion to a Comet Surface Sample Return Mission | Zendy

Byoungsam Woo | Zendy; Victoria Coverstone | Zendy; Michael Cupples | Zendy

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Application of Solar Electric Propulsion to a Comet Surface Sample Return Mission

Author(s) -

Byoungsam Woo,

Victoria Coverstone,

Michael Cupples

Publication year - 2006

Publication title -

journal of spacecraft and rockets

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 0.758

H-Index - 79

eISSN - 1533-6794

pISSN - 0022-4650

DOI - 10.2514/1.23371

Subject(s) - spacecraft , aerospace engineering , in space propulsion technologies , propulsion , missile , space environment , spacecraft design , systems engineering , space (punctuation) , ion thruster , space exploration , electrically powered spacecraft propulsion , comet , space research , space science , space technology , engineering , aeronautics , astrobiology , computer science , physics , astronomy , operating system

Current NSTAR (planned for the Discovery Mission: Dawn) and NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster based propulsion systems were compared for a comet surface sample return mission to Tempe1 1. Mission and systems analyses were conducted over a range of array power for each propulsion system with an array of 12 kW EOL at 1 AU chosen for a baseline. Engine configurations investigated for NSTAR included 4 operational engines with 1 spare and 5 operational engines with 1 spare. The NEXT configuration investigated included 2 operational engines plus 1 spare, with performance estimated for high thrust and high Isp throttling modes. Figures of merit for this comparison include Solar Electric Propulsion dry mass, average engine throughput, and net non-propulsion payload returned to Earth flyby.

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