Solar probe power systems concepts

Conference · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:5292809

Nesmith, B J ^[1]

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1. JPL, Pasadena, CA (United States)

Some of the design options under consideration for providing on-board electric power for the Solar Probe Mission are discussed. Five spacecraft configurations were evaluated with slightly different power demands and volumetric constraints on the power system. This resulted in three different baseline power system designs to satisfy the five spacecraft configurations. These three current baseline power system designs use modified general-purpose heat source (GPHS) radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) similar to those launched on the Galileo and Ulysses spacecraft. The modular RTG currently under development and testing is a potential advanced alternative to the current baseline GPHS-RTG technology design. 8 refs.

• Research Organization: California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab. (JPL)
• OSTI ID: 5292809
• Report Number(s): AIAA-Paper-92-0864; CONF-920157-
• Resource Relation: Conference: 30. American Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics (AIAA) aerospace sciences meeting and exhibit, Reno, NV (United States), 6-9 Jan 1992
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
07 ISOTOPES AND RADIATION SOURCES
RADIOISOTOPE BATTERIES
THERMOELECTRIC GENERATORS
SPACECRAFT POWER SUPPLIES
DESIGN
POWER SYSTEMS
SOLAR ENERGY
SPACE VEHICLES
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ENERGY
ENERGY SOURCES
EQUIPMENT
POWER SUPPLIES
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
VEHICLES
300304* - Thermoelectric Generators- Applications
300301 - Thermoelectric Generators- Design & Development
070300 - Isotopic Power Supplies