Evaluation of cryogenic power conditioning subsystems for electric propulsion spacecraft
- California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab.
The power requirement of vehicles designed to transport cargo supporting a piloted expedition to Mars is in the range of megawatts. Therefore, it is imperative that the megawatt-class power processing unit designed for high-power nuclear electric propulsion vehicles using turboalternators and advanced magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thrusters should be such that the overall system efficiency is as high as possible with minimum system specific mass. This paper examines the use of cryogenic power conditioning subsystems to achieve that goal since they have very high efficiency. However, in the past, cryogenic power conditioning subsystems have shown complexity of design and implementation and were costly and somewhat uncertain. With recent advances in materials, devices used in power conversion and cooling methods, further improvements in efficiency and specific mass are realizable. Cryogenically cooled MOSFETs and MCTs are considered for power conversion and two configurations have been examined. It is found that a system efficiency of 92.67% and specific mass of 9.99 kg/kW{sub e} can be realized using MOSFET-based cryogenic power conditioning systems for electric propulsion spacecraft using MPD thrusters. With cryogenically cooled MCTs, the specific mass decreases to 9.77 kg/kW{sub e}, but the efficiency also decreases to 90.94%.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 474476
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960805-; TRN: IM9723%%369
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 31. intersociety energy conversion engineering conference, Washington, DC (United States), 9-14 Aug 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the 31. intersociety energy conversion engineering conference. Volume 1: Aerospace power systems, aerospace technologies; Chetty, P.R.K.; Jackson, W.D.; Dicks, E.B. [eds.]; PB: 681 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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