Human Exploration of Near-Earth Asteroids via Solar Electric Propulsion

Details Human Exploration of Near-Earth Asteroids via Solar Electric Propulsion Human Exploration of Near-Earth Asteroids via Solar Electric Propulsion

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.4925l&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #49.25

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

This poster will present an architecture for human missions to near-Earth asteroids in the mid 2020s using Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP). This concept relies on taking existing, flight-proven technologies from unmanned spaceflight and scaling them up to higher power levels for human spaceflight. When applied to human spaceflight, the robustness of SEP trajectories and the lack of time critical events significantly enhances mission safety for astronauts. This is accomplished by using SEP boost stages to pre-position a Deep Space Vehicle (DSV), supplies, and chemical boost stages in High Earth Orbit (HEO). Pre-placing these elements in HEO for later crew rendezvous avoids having the crew onboard the DSV during the 1-2 year long, low-thrust parts of the trajectory, while still taking advantage of the high fuel efficiency of solar electric propulsion systems.
Once these assets are pre-placed in HEO, a lunar flyby is used to drop the perigee of the DSV to the altitude of International Space Station (ISS) orbit. Astronauts are then launched from the ISS to rendezvous with the DSV in an Orion Crew Module (CM) using a chemical boost stage. Once the crew establishes that the DSV is ready for departure from HEO the DSV performs an Earth escape burn with a chemical boost stage. After Earth departure, the crew uses the SEP stage as part of the DSV to rendezvous with a NEO and orbit it for 1-2 months. Following rendezvous, the DSV returns to Earth using the SEP stage and the astronauts depart in the Orion CM for a direct entry. After the crew returns, the unmanned DSV uses the SEP stage to return to HEO over the course of a year where it is refurbished for reuse on a subsequent mission.

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