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Sunday, April 24, 2016

NASA spends $67 million into solar power electric propulsion for profound space exploration

NASA has selected Aerojet Rocketdyne to get a $67 million contract to produce an advanced Solar Electric powered Propulsion (SEP) system regarding future deep-space missions.

In the press release, NASA stated the propulsion system could provide on robotic missions to a asteroid and in other missions linked to their Journey to Mars system.

Compared to chemical propulsion (the form of propulsion that rockets use to escape Earth’s gravity well and also reach orbit), SEP has lower pushed but is more fuel-efficient and will provide thrust for longer intervals. For these reasons, SEP is useful in the vacuum regarding space, particularly on spacecraft together with long mission lifetimes.

SEP engines provide thrust by converting solar technology into electricity and making use of that electricity to increase ionized propellant at really high speeds. The iconic blue glow from your SEP thruster is produced from photons released by the ions while they lose energy upon leaving behind the engine.

NASA continues to be working on SEP technology considering that the 1950s and they’ve employed SEP on prior missions just like the Dawn spacecraft, which is in orbit around the particular dwarf planet Ceres which is the first spacecraft to be able to orbit around two extraterrestrial body.

Under the new deal, NASA hopes to twice the thrust capability in comparison to current electric propulsion systems and raise the fuel efficiency by 10 times the existing chemical propulsion.

One challenge with deep-space tasks that use SEP is that when you travel deeper into the particular solar system (farther far from the sun), it becomes more challenging to effectively capture light from your sun to power the particular spacecraft. Because of this kind of, NASA stated its existing SEP research is funded in parallel with perform to advance solar assortment technology.

During the 36-month deal, Aerojet Rocketdyne is in charge of constructing, testing and offering an SEP product regarding testing and evaluation. At some point, the goal is to own Aerojet Rocketdyne deliver several electric propulsion units that may fly in space.

“Through this kind of contract, NASA will become developing advanced electric propulsion factors for initial spaceflight software, which will pave just how for an advanced pv electric propulsion demonstration mission from the end of the ten years. ” Steve Jurczyk, relate administrator of NASA’s Area Technology Mission Directorate

Additionally particular electric propulsion deal, Aerojet Rocketdyne is in charge of the chemical propulsion : the RS-25 engines : for NASA’s Space Start System, the rocket built to be used on missions linked to NASA’s Journey to Mars motivation.

Aerojet Rocketdyne’s current contract is section of NASA’s overall push to be able to advance SEP systems. NASA plans to check the largest and sophisticated SEP system ever found in space on their Asteroid Reroute Mission, which is built to capture an asteroid and stick it in orbit around the particular moon. That mission is slated for the mid-2020s.

Techsourcenetwork