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Solar electric propulsion for future NASA missions

Geoffrey A. Landis, Steven R. Oleson, Carolyn R. Mercer
2015 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC)  

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Use of high-power solar arrays, at power levels ranging from ~500 KW to several megawatts, has been proposed for a solar-electric propulsion (SEP) demonstration mission, using a photovoltaic array to provide energy to a high-power xenon-fueled engine. One of the proposed applications of the high-power SEP technology is a mission to rendezvous with an asteroid and move it into lunar orbit for human exploration, the Asteroid Retrieval mission. The Solar Electric Propulsion project is dedicated to
more » ... developing critical technologies to enable trips to further away destinations such as Mars or asteroids. NASA needs to reduce the cost of these ambitious exploration missions. High power and high efficiency SEP systems will require much less propellant to meet those requirements.
doi:10.1109/pvsc.2015.7355948 fatcat:3gngxkeeqzdinpjikrwls7bshe
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Geoffrey A. Landis, Steven R. Oleson, Carolyn R. Mercer. "Solar electric propulsion for future NASA missions." 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC) (2015)