Piloted Mars mission planning: NEP technology and power levels

This paper examines the strong interrelationship between assumed technology and mission performance requirements for NEP. Recent systems analysis efforts by NASA, DOE, and various contractors are used to project achievable system performance as a function of technological sophistication for two piloted Mars mission applications. Specific mass regimes for each collection of technologies are presented as a function of power level for piloted applications. Low thrust mission analyses are presented which relate these system performance projections to achievable mission performance. Mission performance ‘‘maps’’ are constructed which link prime mission figures‐of‐merit of time and initial mass with system requirements on power level and specific mass, and hence technology. Both opposition and conjunction class piloted Mars missions are presented for the 2016 opportunity, analogous to those proposed in the ‘‘90‐Day Study’’ and ‘‘Synthesis’’ architecture studies. Mass and time breakdowns are presented for 10 MWe piloted and 5 MWe cargo point designs.