NASA Gives Solar Ionic Propulsion A Monster Boost (networkworld.com)

coondoggie quotes a report from Network World: NASA this week took a giant step toward using solar electric power for future space missions by awarding a $67 million contract to Aerojet Rocketdyne to develop an advanced electric propulsion system. Network World writes, "Specifically, Aerojet Rocketdyne will develop and deliver an integrated electric propulsion system -- known as the Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS) -- consisting of a thruster, power processing unit (PPU), low-pressure xenon flow controller, and electrical harness. Such a system would deploy large solar arrays that can be used to convert sunlight into electrical power that ionizes atoms of xenon which is the propellant for the spacecraftâ(TM)s thrusters. In addition, such a power plant could potentially increase spaceflight fuel efficiency by 10 times over current chemical propulsion technology and more than double thrust capability compared to current electric propulsion systems, NASA said." NASA's plan is to use this propulsion system on its future Asteroid Redirect Mission, as well as on its mission to Mars.

Comments

Re:'10 times more efficient' and xenon gas

[ControlFreal]

It's all about delta-v, not about the occurence of said gasses on Earth.

Rockets work, whether we like it our not, according to the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation: the delta-v you can obtain it only logarithmic in your start mass / payload fraction, but linear in your exhaust velocity. That velocity is in ~3 km/s for chemical rockets, but 20-50 km/s for ion engines. That allows you to push a probe/ship from LEO into a transfer orbit using a massively lighter ship, which in turn allow you to launch that into orbit using a massively smaller launch vehicle.