SP-100 space nuclear power technology requirements for kilowatt-to-megawatt systems
- General Electric Company, San Jose, CA (United States)
- Department of Energy, Germantown, MD (United States)
- Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, CA (United States)
The SP-100 Space Reactor Power System (SRPS) is being developed by General Electric under contract to the US Department of Energy (DOE) to provide electric power in the range of tens to hundreds of kilowatts. 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. An effective infrastructure of industry, national laboratories, and government agencies has made substantial progress in developing SP-100 technology. Hardware development and testing has progressed to the point where all key technical feasibility issues have been resolved. The technology and design are now at a state of readiness to support the definition of early flight demonstration missions in the 1997-2000 time frame. The technology to achieve higher power, long-life missions is under development and is expected to be available in 1998. The benefit of utilizing a low-power [6- to 20-kW(electric) range] early flight mission as a precursor to operational missions near 100 kw(electric) has received renewed interest among government agencies and industry. The status of the nuclear technology has matured to the level of supporting a flight design with the currently available data base. The conductively coupled thermoelectric cell technology is now in the cell-level testing and verification phase with component level readiness to be complete by the end of GFY94. Power system designs using current flight-proven radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) unicouples have been established and also represent an attractive option for early launches.
- OSTI ID:
- 5744529
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-930601-; CODEN: TANSAO
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States), Vol. 68; Conference: American Nuclear Society (ANS) annual meeting, San Diego, CA (United States), 20-24 Jun 1993; ISSN 0003-018X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
SPACE PROPULSION REACTORS
REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
DESIGN
FEASIBILITY STUDIES
INTERAGENCY COOPERATION
POWER RANGE
SPACE VEHICLES
TESTING
THERMOELECTRIC GENERATORS
US DOE
COOPERATION
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
MOBILE REACTORS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
POWER REACTORS
PROPULSION REACTORS
REACTORS
SPACE POWER REACTORS
US ORGANIZATIONS
VEHICLES
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
210600* - Power Reactors
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Mobile Package
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