NASA PP

            Throughout decades, NASA has been trying to improve their strategies to gaining access to places within our solar system and improve their technologies to enable its capabilities in future missions and support other spaceflight activities. One project that they are in the development is the Solar Electric Propulsion, or the (SEP). This new project is a cost-effective way to lengthen and improve the capabilities of space travel to enable NASAs ability to seek new missions beyond their current capability. This project will use on-board solar arrays that will use photons, or light rays, given off by the sun which will act as a solar propellant as oppose to the current chemical propulsion system, which has proven to be not only costly but also limited. The incoming solar rays will be absorbed by highly absorbent converters that will transfer this energy into electricity, similar to those we see on Earth with solar panels on houses and buildings. This new system will also use about 10 times less propellant but will cause the same amount of thrust and can provide a movement force of more than 65,000 mph. Not only will this new technology enable us to study deeper into our solar system, it can also be used to aid Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission which is a planetary defense mission in which we are able to redirect potentially hazardous Asteroids that can be seen traveling in the path of the Earth.