NEXT Ion Propulsion System Production Readiness

*† ‡ § ¶ The objectives of the NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) program are to develop a next generation ion propulsion system to Technology Readiness Level 6 and to transfer the NASA technology to industry partners to facilitate the manufacturing of future flight systems. A primary focus of the program is to minimize first user cost of the system through a flexible system design approach, manufacturing process development, and element and system validation. The NEXT program has made significant progress towards these goals in the last 18 months. With the fabrication and qualification-level testing of engineering and prototype model hardware, a substantial level of technical and production readiness has been demonstrated. This paper describes the development and validation status of each of five system elements, summarizes performance and interface characteristics for each element, and details Aerojet’s readiness to manufacture the flight system.

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