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Mission Advantages of Constant Power, Variable Isp Electrostatic Thrusters

Author
Oleson, Steven R.
Published
November 2000.
Physical Description
1 electronic document
Online Version

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Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available.
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Summary
Electric propulsion has moved from station-keeping capability for spacecraft to primary propulsion with the advent of both the Deep Space One asteroid flyby and geosynchronous spacecraft orbit insertion. In both cases notably more payload was delivered than would have been possible with chemical propulsion. To provide even greater improvements electrostatic thruster performance could be varied in specific impulse, but kept at constant power to provide better payload or trip time performance for different mission phases. Such variable specific impulse mission applications include geosynchronous and low earth orbit spacecraft stationkeeping and orbit insertion, geosynchronous reusable tug missions, and interplanetary probes. The application of variable specific impulse devices is shown to add from 5 to 15% payload for these missions. The challenges to building such devices include variable voltage power supplies and extending fuel throughput capabilities across the specific impulse range.
Other Subject(s)
Collection
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Collection.
Note
Document ID: 20010016102.
NASA/TM-2000-210477.
AIAA Paper 2000-3413.
E-12473.
NAS 1.15:210477.
Joint Propulsion; 16-19 Jul. 2000; Huntsville, AL; United States.
Terms of Use and Reproduction
No Copyright.
View MARC record | catkey: 15422147