High power solar electric propulsion and the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM)

Abstract

NASA is currently developing the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM) that would have the capability to retrieve a boulder from a Near Earth Asteroid and place it in Lunar orbit where astronauts in an Orion spacecraft would rendezvous with the ARRM vehicle and explore the boulder. This mission is conceived as a capabilities demonstration mission that would path-find high power Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) and Earth-independent human spaceflight operations for Mars missions in the 2030s, as part of NASA's Journey to Mars initiative. The high-power, light-weight solar arrays and high-power, magnetically-shielded hall thrusters being developed for ARRM will dramatically increase NASA's in-space transportation capability. These two technologies could propel affordable human missions to asteroids, Martian moons, and asteroids. In addition, these technologies could be used to enhance human access to cis-lunar space and the Lunar surface. This paper will provide an overview of ARRM and discuss how ARRM-developed technologies would feed forward to human deep space exploration missions.