An examination of emerging in-space propulsion concepts for one-year crewed mars missions

A study was completed that provides a meaningful, even-handed, comparison assessment of promising candidate, in-space, exploration propulsion concepts to support emerging “near-term” crewed Mars mission applications. In particular, the study examined the mission performance feasibility and risk of a number of near-, mid-, and far-term in-space propulsion concepts to support crewed Mars missions starting in 2018 that can have the crewed portion of the mission performed in one year or less. This study used exploration propulsion system team technology specialist advocates to identify seven meaningful, representative mission architecture scenarios to “best” demonstrate the capability of such in-space propulsion technology options to support the near-term crewed Mars mission requirement. Additionally, a common set of top-level mission/system requirements was established for the study, which was incorporated in the assessment of all the mission options considered. Mission performance for abundant chemical (Ab-...