Simulation and Comparison of Propulsion Systems for a Manned Mission to Mars

Recent developments suggest a manned mission to Mars as a realistic near future possibility, therefore requiring additional consideration into which propulsion system to use. Examples include the traditional chemical rocket; the nuclear pulse engine, which propels a spacecraft using nuclear explosions; the ion thruster, which accelerates propellant using electrically charged grids; and others. This paper evaluates six such propulsion systems using Python computer simulations. Each simulation models a SpaceX Starship spacecraft modified to use one of the six propulsion systems, calculating and returning values for transfer time and propellant mass consumption. These results are analyzed and ranked to determine how the different systems would compare in performance in an actual mission, specifically in the aforementioned criteria of travel time and propellant expenditure.