SEP-Sample return from a main belt asteroid
- 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.
Author: | Horst Wolfgang Loeb, Karl-Heinz Schartner, Bernd DachwaldORCiD, Wolfgang Seboldt |
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Parent Title (English): | 30th International Electric Propulsion Conference |
Document Type: | Conference Proceeding |
Language: | English |
Year of Completion: | 2007 |
Length: | 11 |
First Page: | 1 |
Last Page: | 11 |
Link: | http://electricrocket.org/IEPC/IEPC-2007-048.pdf |
Zugriffsart: | weltweit |
Institutes: | FH Aachen / Fachbereich Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik |
FH Aachen / IfB - Institut für Bioengineering |