NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) Phase 2 Development Status

** The NEXT (NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster) project is currently in the second year of the Phase 2 technology development project. This paper presents a summary of the overall NEX T project status, highlighting key accomplishments to date. The characteristics and flexibility of the NEXT system configuration are described. NEXT can be configured from simple configurations supporting single thruster operations through more complex fou r thruster systems. Results of recent in -space propulsion technology assessment analyses conducted by NASA are presented. To augment prior outer planet reference missions, extensive mission analyses have illustrated NEXT benefits to a variety of mission cl asses, including Discovery and New Frontiers. The resulting impacts on system requirements are described. NEXT ion thruster, power processing unit, propellant management system and gimbal design, fabrication and test status are provided, with summaries of results achieved to date. Status of thruster life evaluation is also summarized. Finally, plans for the completion of the second phase of the NEXT project are described.