Aerojet has received a two-phase contract from NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate to design, build and deliver a sub-scale, electric-propulsion, direct-drive system. It will validate the technology for future full-scale use on Moon and Mars cargo transport vehicles. The two-phase, $12.3 million contract was awarded by NASA's Glenn Research Center.

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Aerojet's direct drive system will deliver high-voltage power directly from space vehicle solar panels to electric-propulsion Hall thrusters. This will eliminate costly and heavy primary power converters and reduce solar panel size. A savings in mass on full-scale Moon or Mars solar electric-propulsion cargo vehicles is projected to exceed 2,200 pounds resulting in reduced propellant needs for launching the vehicles from Earth.

The two-phase program will culminate with a ground system demonstration test that will include illuminating solar panels in a vacuum test chamber used to drive a Hall thruster firing. At the conclusion of the program, the hardware will be delivered to NASA for integration into a flight experiment mission to validate the technology in space.

Aerojet's teammates on the contract include Lockheed Martin, SAIC, Vacco, NASA Glenn Research Center and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.