Optimization of Interplanetary Trajectory for Direct Fusion Drive Spacecraft

Abstract

The Direct Fusion Drive (DFD) technology, which is being developed at present, will allow fast and affordable interplanetary travel. This is a result of the very high specific impulse and the low specific mass of DFD thrusters which outperform more conventional Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP), with which it shares the ability of providing a low (albeit higher than in the case of NEP) continuous thrust. It is well known that, to optimize the payload fraction, the thruster should operate in Variable Exhaust Velocity (VEV) mode and that the lower is the specific mass, the higher should be the maximum specific impulse the thruster can produce. A low thrust interplanetary travel, from the orbit around the starting planet to the orbit around the destination planet, can be considered as made of three parts: a first planetocentric phase, a second heliocentric phase and finally a third planetocentric phase; in all of them the trajectory is a sort of a spiral, but while in the first and third the spacecraft makes several (or even a large number) turns about the two planets, the second consists of a fraction of a turn about the Sun. In the first and last one the optimal specific impulse is not much variable and should remain quite low, while in the second one it must go through large variations, reaching a very high value at roughly midway between the planets. To show the potentialities of DFD, three typical fast missions are studied: to the Moon, to Mars and to Titan, showing that this propulsion device will allow humans to reach practically the whole solar system in a reasonable time. Keywords: Interplanetary travel, Human Mars Exploration, Direct Fusion Drive, Trajectory Optimization, Specific Impulse Optimization