LOW-THRUST ROUNDTRIP TRAJECTORIES TO MARS WITH ONE-SYNODIC-PERIOD REPEAT TIME

摘要

We investigate the use of nuclear-electric propulsion for human missions to Mars. Employing a patched-conic solution as our initial guess, low-thrust trajectories are designed via a continuation method. We determine the propulsion requirements for a reusable human transportation system, in which a single vehicle makes a round trip between the Earth and Mars within a synodic period, thus allowing a mission at every launch opportunity. We find that the acceleration required for a typical mission exceeds current technology by an order of magnitude. However, technology improvements in the next decade could make such a mission feasible.