Spacecraft Design for Multipurpose Solar Electric Propulsion Missions

The potential performance advantages of solar electric propulsion have led to a study of the over-all spacecraft systems implications of such propulsion devices. The results of this study, including spacecraft design and trajectory analysis (using the Atlas/Centaur as the launch vehicle) for asteroid belt, out-of-ecliptic, and solar probes are presented. These design studies have investigated the feasibility of a baseline spacecraft that could accommodate the requirements and constraints of each mission considered and indicate the degree of subsystem flexibility required of such a multipurpose spacecraft. Particular attention is devoted to a modular-ion engine system design that can perform a variety of missions with no basic modifications to major elements. A fixed attitude spacecraft design able to perform efficiently the three selected missions is described.