TY  - CHAP
A1  - Dachwald, Bernd
A1  - Seboldt, Wolfgang
A1  - Loeb, Horst W.
A1  - Schartner, Karl-Heinz
T1  - A comparison of SEP and NEP for a main belt asteroid sample return mission
T2  - 7th International Symposium on Launcher Technologies, Barcelona, Spain, 02-05 April 2007
N2  - Innovative interplanetary deep space missions, like a main belt asteroid sample
return mission, require ever larger velocity increments (∆V s) and thus ever
more demanding propulsion capabilities. Providing much larger exhaust velocities than chemical high-thrust systems, electric low-thrust space-propulsion
systems can significantly enhance or even enable such high-energy missions. In
1995, a European-Russian Joint Study Group (JSG) presented a study report
on “Advanced Interplanetary Missions Using Nuclear-Electric Propulsion”
(NEP). One of the investigated reference missions was a sample return (SR)
from the main belt asteroid (19) Fortuna. The envisaged nuclear power plant,
Topaz-25, however, could not be realized and also the worldwide developments
in space reactor hardware stalled. In this paper, we investigate, whether such
a mission is also feasible using a solar electric propulsion (SEP) system and
compare our SEP results to corresponding NEP results.
Y1  - 2007
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Loeb, Horst Wolfgang
A1  - Schartner, Karl-Heinz
A1  - Dachwald, Bernd
A1  - Seboldt, Wolfgang
T1  - SEP-Sample return from a main belt asteroid
T2  - 30th International Electric Propulsion Conference
N2  - By DLR-contact, sample return missions to the large main-belt asteroid “19, Fortuna” have been studied. The mission scenario has been based on three ion thrusters of the RIT-22 model, which is presently under space qualification, and on solar arrays equipped with triple-junction GaAs solar cells. After having designed the spacecraft, the orbit-to-orbit trajectories for both, a one-way SEP mission with a chemical sample return and an all-SEP return mission, have been optimized using a combination of artificial neural networks with evolutionary algorithms. Additionally, body-to-body trajectories have been
investigated within a launch period between 2012 and 2015. For orbit-to-orbit calculation, the launch masses of the hybrid mission and of the all-SEP mission resulted in 2.05 tons and 1.56 tons, respectively, including a scientific payload of 246 kg. For the related transfer
durations 4.14 yrs and 4.62 yrs were obtained. Finally, a comparison between the mission scenarios based on SEP and on NEP have been carried out favouring clearly SEP.
Y1  - 2007
SP  - 1
EP  - 11
ER  -