PROSPECT OF LIQUID/SOLID PROPELLANT ELECTRIC PROPULSION TECHNOLOGY FOR SPACE TRANSPORT TASKS

With the proposal of space missions such as lunar base and large space platform on Geostationary Orbit, of which space transportation with high load ratio has become an important demand, electric propulsion technology with high specific impulse and long life has become the first choice for space propulsion. At present, the widely used mainstream technologies of space electric propulsion are ion propulsion and Hall propulsion using rare gas xenon as the propellant. However, with the increasing application of electric propulsion products, the resource scarcity of xenon causes its price to soar day by day, and the cost of propellant has become an insurmountable problem that restricts its use in space transportation with a large total impulse; in addition, gas storage requires high-pressure storage tanks, which also results in a large proportion of the weight of propellant high-pressure storage and supply equipment for large total impulse missions, reducing the effective specific impulse of the propulsion system. Four high-power electric propulsion technologies that are most suitable for space transport missions are introduced first, and explains what characteristics the propellants they need should have by elaborating their working principles. Afterwards the historical process of optimizing the selection of various types of electric propellants are reviewed, and with the physical characteristics of the four types of electric propulsion combined, the rationality and feasibility of adopting new liquid or solid propellants as electric propulsion propellants for space transportation tasks are discussed, with the aim of significantly reducing the cost of the acquiring and storage of electric propellants, and providing new spatial power schemes for long-distance and high load ratio space transportation.