Solar thermal-solar electric propulsion hybrid orbit transfer analysis

Abstract

Abstract : This effort examined the payoffs associated with the joint application of solar thermal propulsion (STP) and electric propulsion (EP) for orbit raising. The combined use of STP (800 second specific impulse) and EP (1800 second specific impulse) for a single orbit transfer mission is motivated by the desire to leverage the higher thrust of STP with the higher specific impulse of EP to maximize mission capability. The primary objectives of this analysis were to quantify the payload, mission duration, and hydrogen propellant to payload mass ratio for a range of combined STP and EP orbit transfer missions to geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO), and contrast them to results for STP only. For STP, the hydrogen propellant to payload mass ratio is of particular interest due to payload fairing size constraints and the relatively low density of liquid hydrogen, which limit the mass of the STP propellant, and therefore the amount of payload that can be delivered. The results of the analysis include an 18% payload improvement associated with STP-EP hybrid propulsion over STP alone. The trip time needed for the STP-EP transfer varied from 101 to 143 days, compared to 41 days for the Solar only case. In addition, the amount of hydrogen propellant needed to accomplish the orbit raising to GEO per unit mass of payload decreased by 29% when the Solar Thermal - Solar Electric hybrid was used. While comprehensive comparisons of STP-EP to chemical propulsion (CP) only and to CP with EP orbit topping were also of interest, they were beyond the scope of this effort. However, a comparison of reference missions was performed. In comparison to the reference CP (328 second specific impulse) and CP-EP missions the STP-EP system provided 67% and 39% payload increases. respectively. The trip time for the CP-EP cases varied from 55 to 106 days.