Take-Off from Satellite Orbit

A Critical History of Electric Propulsion: The First Fifty Years (1906-1956)

“…This was followed, in 1953, by H.S. Tsien [39] whose low-thrust orbital mechanics work (cf. Footnote 46) vindicated Spitzer's adoption of the low (10 −4 gravity) vehicle acceleration that had led him to reclaim the feasibility of ion propulsion.…”

“…Although Spitzer's may well be the earliest quantitative description of a "gridded" ion thruster in the literature, it is worthwhile to mention that EP's pioneers were, by that date, benefitting from significant advances during the 1940s in the development of ion 46 Although Spitzer assumed this value, like Shepherd and Cleaver did theirs, without a priori rationalization, he was justified a posteriori a year later by Tsien [39] whose work on low-thrust trajectories showed that even lower accelerations (10 −5 g) could be used in effecting useful orbital maneuvers in acceptable time. 47 See Footnote 3 of ref.…”

Electrostatic Propulsion Systems for Space Vehicles

“…A study of low-thrust rocket trajectories, applicable to ion rockets, was made by Tsien [11] in 1953. He showed that accelerations as low as 10~4 or 10~δ g were sufficient for vehicles to leave a satellite orbit and to reach another planet within a reasonable time.…”

“…(11) Assuming that the exhaust velocity v ex = ν = const, the thrust becomes (11) Assuming that the exhaust velocity v ex = ν = const, the thrust becomes…”

DROMO formulation for planar motions: solution to the Tsien problem

“…All this kind of applications benefit from the study of planar motions. Tsien (1953) studied continuous low-thrust trajectories for Earth escape from circular orbit by decomposing the thrust into radial and circumferential components, and analyzing each problem separately. In particular, he provided analytic solutions to the constant radial thrust problem, hereafter referred to as the Tsien problem.…”