Solar electric propulsion for future NASA missions

Use of high-power solar arrays, at power levels up to a megawatt, have been proposed for a solar-electric propulsion (SEP) missions, using photovoltaic arrays to provide energy to high-power xenon-fueled engines. One of the proposed demonstrations of high-power SEP technology is a mission to rendezvous with an asteroid and move it into lunar orbit for human exploration, the Asteroid Redirect mission. NASA's Solar Electric Propulsion project is dedicated to developing critical technologies to enable trips destinations such as Mars or asteroids. NASA needs to reduce the cost of these ambitious exploration missions. High power and high efficiency SEP systems will require much less propellant to meet those requirements.

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