Overview of NASA's Solar Electric Propulsion ProjectNASA is continuing to develop and qualify a state of the art 13 kW-class Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS) for NASA exploration missions through a contract with Aerojet Rocketdyne (AR). An objective of the AEPS project is accelerate the adoption of high power electric propulsion technologies by reducing the risk and uncertainty of integrating Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) technologies into space flight systems. NASA and AR have recently initiated testing of engineering hardware including the Hall Current Thruster (HCT), Power Processing Unit (PPU), and Xenon Flow Controller (XFC) at both the component and system levels. The successful completion of these tests will provide the required information to advance the AEPS system towards Critical Design Review. In support of the AEPS contract, NASA and JPL have been performing risk reduction activities to address specific concerns of this higher power Hall thruster propulsion system. These risk reduction activities have included long duration wear testing of the Technology Demonstration Unit (TDU) Hall thruster and cathode hardware, thermal cycling of TDU cathode heaters and coils, plasma plume measurements, and performed early circuit testing of the AEPS PPU design. In addition to the propulsion system development, the SEP project is developing the Plasma Diagnostic Package (PDP) and the SEP Testbed. The PDP is designed for use in conjunction with a high-powered electric propulsion (EP) system to characterize in-space operation. The SEP Testbed system is being developed to demonstrate integrated SEP system performance. The paper presents an overview of the NASA and the AEPS contract activities and a summary of the associated NASA in-house activities.
Document ID
20190031848
Acquisition Source
Glenn Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Peterson, Peter Y. (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Herman, Daniel A. (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Kamhawi, Hani (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Frieman, Jason D. (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Huang, Wensheng (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Verhey, Tim (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Dinca, Dragos (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Boomer, Kristen (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Pinero, Luis (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Criswell, Kenneth (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Hall, Scott J. (Vantage Partners, LLC Brook Park, OH, United States)
Birchenough, Art (Vantage Partners, LLC Brook Park, OH, United States)
Gilland, James H. (Ohio Aerospace Inst. Cleveland, OH, United States)
Hofer, Richard (Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology (CalTech) Pasadena, CA, United States)
Polk, James E. (Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology (CalTech) Pasadena, CA, United States)
Chaplin, Vernon (Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology (CalTech) Pasadena, CA, United States)
Lobbia, Robert (Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology (CalTech) Pasadena, CA, United States)
Garner, Charles E. (Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology (CalTech) Pasadena, CA, United States)
Kowalkowski, Matthew K. (Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology (CalTech) Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
September 27, 2019
Publication Date
September 15, 2019
Subject Category
Spacecraft Propulsion And Power
Report/Patent Number
IEPC-2019-836GRC-E-DAA-TN72567
Meeting Information
Meeting: International Electric Propulsion Conference (IEPC)
Location: Vienna
Country: Austria
Start Date: September 15, 2019
End Date: September 20, 2019
Sponsors: FOTEC Forschungs- und Technologietransfer GmbH