Comparison of the DYNASIM and CEX2D grid erosion simulation codes in the frame of grid lifetime modeling of the RIT-2X thruster for the Mars Sample Return – Earth Return Orbiter

The European Space Agency is currently cooperating with NASA on a Mars Sample Return campaign. The Earth Return Orbiter is one of the European contributions to MSR and the mission is enabled through use of Solar Electric Propulsion. The RIT-2X gridded ion engine of ArianeGroup is under development for the SEP subsystem of ERO. In the frame of ongoing lifetime analyses for the RIT-2X engine for ERO, grid erosion simulations are undertaken by ArianeGroup in partnership with IOM Leipzig, and by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory through the NASA-ESA cooperation framework of MSR. This paper reports on a cross-comparison of the (2D) DYNASIM toolkit of IOM and the CEX2D code of JPL.