Our Progress and Plans on the
Journey to Mars
With SEP, NASA can also aggregate, refurbish, and reuse Mars transportation
infrastructure in a high-energy orbit, such as lunar distant retrograde orbit
(LDRO). High performance liquid oxygen and hydrogen propulsion from the
SLS Exploration Upper Stage can provide the majority of departure energy,
placing payloads in these high-energy orbits and allowing the SEP or SEPhybrid thrusters to initiate the maneuver to Mars. As an added advantage, these
maneuvers can be reversed, allowing NASA to capture the Mars return vehicle
for refurbishment and reuse. Developing and demonstrating advanced SEP
systems early during the Proving Ground missions will accelerate our progress
toward sustainable pioneering.
The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) provides a near-term opportunity to
demonstrate several capabilities important for longer-duration, deep-space missions,
including flight-valid ]Y