Mars society Ion engine proyect need help

[matt3mason]

The mars society winnipeg chapter is triying to develop a proyect to deploy a balloon on planet mars, in order to accomplish this proyect a ION ENGINE will be needed, this engine need to be big enough to deliver a load of 25 kg to mars orbit, please if any proyect of this tipe have been discuss on this forum please any help will be appreciated thanks. I am contactig this forum on behalf of rbdyck@home.com

 

NASA and JPL (jpl.nasa.gov) have a satellite called Deep Space that has used and validated an Ion engine. About the design of the spacecraft itself, start with Space Mission Analysis and Design 3rd ed., Larson and Wertz, editors, Space Technology Library. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (aiaa.org) probably has tons of material on the subject. Good luck!

 

[morgothia]

ok first off it depends on the type there are many types of ion engines some cheap and others very expensive. If money is a factor then a cluster of simple hall effect thrusters useing say mercury or teflon (teflon being more expensive) could be used these were most made in russia and have a well proven track record with lots of data on them they could be modified to do what is needed the deep space sysytems are all new and rather expensive i know because i have worked with ppl who worked on some of the proposals for deep space 3 thru 5 I hope this helps ya out

morgothia