Aerojet's direct drive system will deliver high-voltage power directly from space vehicle solar panels to electric-propulsion Hall thrusters. This will eliminate costly and heavy primary power converters and reduce solar panel size. A savings in mass on full-scale Moon or Mars solar electric-propulsion cargo vehicles is projected to exceed 2,200 pounds resulting in reduced propellant needs for launching the vehicles from Earth.

The two-phase program will culminate with a ground system demonstration test that will include illuminating solar panels in a vacuum test chamber used to drive a Hall thruster firing. At the conclusion of the program, the hardware will be delivered to NASA for integration into a flight experiment mission to validate the technology in space.

Aerojet's teammates on the contract include Lockheed Martin, SAIC, Vacco, NASA Glenn Research Center and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.