Design of Air-Breathing Electrical Propulsion Based on Cargo-Spacecraft for Replenishment

This scheme makes the best use of structure of the cargo ship by integrating with air-breathing helicon plasma electrical propulsion. The normal operation of a manned space station requires regular replenishment of oxygen, fuel, food and instruments. Research on resupply spacecraft to supply oxygen and fuel to the space station will help reduce the replenishment needs of the station. A resupply spacecraft with air-breathing electrical propulsion as core technology will meet the replenishment needs of the space station during on-orbit operation at a low cost and bring high loading capacity and substantial economic benefits. The replenishment ship based on this scheme can collect 1000 kg working gas a year on 180 km orbit and reduce the cost of building and launching cargo ships. This paper carried out studies on mission process, resource consumption, orbit design and thrust Analysis. The ionization mode of air-breathing electrical propulsion is helicon discharge and the average power for orbit maintaining and air collecting is about 775 W.