Electric propulsion flight experience and technology readiness
Abstract
Spacecraft electric propulsion technology is reviewed here to provide mission planners and potential users with a better appreciation of its capabilities and limitations. Flight experience provides the best measure of EP technology readiness. We describe and document the flight history and development status of EP in domestic, foreign, and commercial programs. Low-power resistojets, arcjets, ion engines, and plasma thrusters are applicable today for stationkeeping and drag compensation. Future high-power systems would enable large velocity-change maneuvers. The trade-space of EP encompasses significant performance benefits (reduced propellant mass, enhanced payload, system-level synergism), along with challenges (hardware development, system operations, non-technical issues). The choice of design parameters (thrust, specific impulse, input power) depends on how much of a change from traditional spacecraft operations is acceptable for a given mission - greater change will yield a greater payoff.
- Publication:
-
Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit
- Pub Date:
- June 1993
- Bibcode:
- 1993jpmc.confX....P
- Keywords:
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- Electric Propulsion;
- Flight Tests;
- Spacecraft Propulsion;
- Technology Assessment;
- Design Analysis;
- Mission Planning;
- Spacecraft Propulsion and Power