Summary and critical evaluation of the mission capabilities of electric propulsion
A method of correlating many of the results for the mission capabilities of electric propulsion by plotting payload against a mission difficulty parameter defined as the velocity increment from an earth orbit that would be required for a minimum-energy impulsive transfer is presented. The locations of some of the boundaries are discussed, anti propulsion system selection maps are presented for low time and cost missions and for low cost alow missions. The puhlished results of several authors are extrapolated and plotted on the maps, showing fair agreement. Care was taken to be objective with respect to the favorable aspect of chemical and nuclear-thermal propulsion. The superiority of electric propulsion became obvious for all manned missions beyond the moon and for a large class of unmanned missions to the planets A very significant conclusion is reached from the analysis that even with relatively heavy power supplies the electric rocket has a much higher potentiality than is generally be lieved, and strong evidence in the case for electric propulsion is presented. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Electro-Optical Systems, Inc., Pasadena, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Sponsor not identified
- NSA Number:
- NSA-17-032223
- OSTI ID:
- 4875394
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-10--36; Preprint--63008B
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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