Quick interplanetary trajectories in presence of a space elevator,

A space elevator is a very effective gateway to the solar system, with a potential of enabling both robotic and human exploration to be faster and cheaper. To the obvious advantages of reducing the cost of access to space, other advantages like allowing to start interplanetary spacecraft at a larger distance from Earth  an essential feature in case of nuclear spacecraft  and injecting exploration spacecraft in higher energy trajectories must be added. The aim of the present paper is studying the effect that the presence of a space elevator can have on the optimal interplanetary trajectories of low-thrust spacecraft, powered by either nuclear or solar energy, with particular reference to Mars Exploration