Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP)

The technology will enable the use of high power electric propulsion systems for long term missions such as cargo transports to Mars.

As NASA plans to extend human presence across the solar system, including the Moon and Mars, it also seeks to shorten the time required to develop and apply transformative technologies that increase the nation's capabilities in space, enable future missions and support a variety of commercial spaceflight activities. NASA's Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) project is developing critical technologies to enable government and commercial customers to extend the length and capabilities of ambitious new exploration and science missions. Advanced propulsion technologies such as SEP deliver the right mix of cost savings, safety and superior propulsive power to support a variety of next generation journeys to destinations in deep space. Energized by the electric power from on-board solar arrays, the electrically propelled system will use 10 times less propellant than a comparable, conventional chemical propulsion system, such as those used to propel the space shuttles to orbit. Yet that reduced fuel mass will deliver robust propulsion capable of boosting robotic and crewed missions well beyond low-Earth orbit: sending exploration spacecraft to distant destinations, ferrying cargo to and from points of interest, laying the groundwork for future missions or resupplying those already underway.