SP-100 space reactor power system readiness and mission flexibility

Details SP-100 space reactor power system readiness and mission flexibility SP-100 space reactor power system readiness and mission flexibility

Jan 1993

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993aipc..271..229j&link_type=abstract

Proceedings of the tenth symposium on space nuclear power and propulsion. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 271, pp. 229-236 (

Computer Science

Power And Production Reactors

Scientific paper

The SP-100 Space Reactor Power System (SRPS) is being developed by GE, under contract to the U.S. Department of Energy, to provide electrical power in the range of 10s to 100s of kW. The system represents an enabling technology for a wide variety of earth orbital and interplanetary science missions, nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) stages, and lunar/Mars surface power for the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI). An effective infracture of Industry, National Laboratories and Government agencies has made substantial progress since the 1988 System Design Review. Hardware development and testing has progressed to the point of resolving the key technical feasibility issues. The technology and design is now at a state of readiness to support the definition of early flight demonstration missions. The benefits of utilizing a low power (6 to 20 kWe range) early flight mission as a precursor to operational missions in the 100 kWe range has received renewed interest among Government Agencies and Industry. Studies and assessments were performed throughout 1992 to further refine the potential missions and the SP-100 Space Reactor Power Systems that could be available to support these missions. The results of assessment showed that the ``first generation'' technology available now from the SP-100 program can support a wide range of candidate missions. The status of the nuclear technology was matured to the level of supporting a flight design with the present available data base. The conductively coupled thermoelectric cell technology is now in the cell level testing and verification phase and component level readiness is projected to be complete by the end of GFY94. Power system designs using the present day flight proven RTG unicouple have been established and also represent an attractive option for early launches. These design concepts are discussed in further detail in a companion paper. (Josloff 1993). This paper will review the SP-100 key features, technology status and early flight mission readiness and updates an earlier paper on this topic (Josloff 1992a).

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