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Radioisotope electric propulsion centaur orbiter spacecraft design overview
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Colozza, Tony Packard, Tom Lisse, Carey Gilland, Jim Hibbits, Karl Juergens, Jeff Oleson, Steve Parkey, Tom Gold, Rob Fiehler, Doug McGuire, Melissa Gyekenyesi, John Dankanich, John Nguyen, Thahn Ostdiek, Paul Sarver-Verhey, Tim Schmitz, Paul Hemminger, Joseph |
| Copyright Year | 2009 |
| Description | Radioisotope electric propulsion (REP) has been shown in past studies to enable missions to outerplanetary bodies including the orbiting of Centaur asteroids. Key to the feasibility for REP missions are long life, low power electric propulsion (EP) devices, low mass radioisotope power systems (RPS) and light spacecraft (S/C) components. In order to determine what are the key parameters for EP devices to perform these REP missions a design study was completed to design an REP S/C to orbit a Centaur in a New Frontiers cost cap. The design shows that an orbiter using several long lived (approximately 200 kg Xenon throughput), low power (approximately 700 W) Hall thrusters teamed with six (150 W each) Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generators (ASRG) can deliver 60 kg of science instruments to a Centaur in 10 yr within the New Frontiers cost cap. Optimal specific impulses for the Hall thrusters were found to be around 2000 sec with thruster efficiencies over 40%. Not only can the REP S/C enable orbiting a Centaur (when compared to an all chemical mission only capable of flybys) but the additional power from the REP system can be reused to enhance science and simplify communications. |
| File Size | 10049130 |
| Page Count | 40 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_20090029908 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t7kq3097s |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 2009-07-01 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Spacecraft Propulsion And Power Electric Propulsion Hall Thrusters Costs Centaur Launch Vehicle Attitude Control Radioisotope Heat Sources Propulsion System Performance Spacecraft Components Trojan Asteroids Spacecraft Design Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports ServerĀ (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |