Aerojet Rocketdyne’s Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS) thruster
that will be employed on the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) for NASA’s
international lunar Gateway recently completed development testing. The next
milestone for the program will be the PPE Preliminary Design Review in
October. Three 12 kilowatt (kW) AEPS thrusters will serve as the primary
source of propulsion on the PPE to enable orbit transfer and in-space
maneuvering.
An important element of NASA’s Artemis program, the Gateway, will serve as a
staging point for human exploration operations in the lunar vicinity and
deep space. The AEPS thrusters will propel the integrated PPE and Habitation
and Logistics Outpost (HALO) in a 10-12 month lunar transfer orbit, which
will eventually insert the spacecraft into a near rectilinear halo orbit
(NRHO) around the Moon.
“The completion of development testing for the AEPS thrusters is an
important milestone in the Gateway program that brings the international
space community one step closer to establishing a sustainable and ongoing
presence at the Moon,” said Aerojet Rocketdyne Executive Director of Space
Joe Cassady.
Aerojet Rocketdyne conducted a series of tests at NASA’s Glenn Research
Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory over the past year on two AEPS
thrusters concurrently to achieve the testing goals in a shorter period of
time. The AEPS thruster design met all of its test objectives.
The development testing consisted of a variety of environmental and wear
tests to ensure that the thruster can withstand the harsh environments it
will experience during launch and operation, including hot fire, shock,
thermal vacuum, and vibration tests. With development testing complete, the
next steps are to complete the qualification process and assemble the flight
units for PPE. Aerojet Rocketdyne anticipates manufacturing the flight units
for the mission concurrently with qualification testing.
The thruster operates at 12 kW – more than twice the power level of electric
thrusters flown on satellites today – producing a higher thrust output for
maneuvering and station-keeping. Capable of producing 60 kW of power, the
PPE will be nearly three times more powerful than any existing spacecraft
using solar electric propulsion. “This is the start of a new era of space
mobility that will demonstrate the ability to move larger objects over
farther distances in space,” Cassady continued.
The PPE-HALO will be assembled and integrated at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
before a planned launch in November 2024. The AEPS thruster was developed at
Aerojet Rocketdyne’s facility in Redmond, Washington as part of NASA’s Space
Technology Mission Directorate and its Solar Electric Propulsion project,
which is developing critical in-space electric propulsion technologies for
ambitious new science and human exploration missions.
No comments:
Post a Comment