Reliability comparison of various nuclear propulsion configurations for Mars mission

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

OSTI ID:10117366

Segna, D R ^[1]; Dagle, J E ^[2]; Lyon, III, W F ^[3]

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1. USDOE Richland Operations Office, WA (United States)
2. Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
3. Westinghouse Hanford Co., Richland, WA (United States)

Currently, trade-offs are being made among the various propulsion systems being considered for the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) missions. It is necessary to investigate the reliability aspects as well as the efficiency, mass savings, and experience characteristics of the various configurations. Reliability is a very important factor for the SEI missions because of the long duration and because problems will be fixed onboard. The propulsion options that were reviewed consist of nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP), nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) and various configurations of each system. There were four configurations developed for comparison with the NTP as baselined in the Synthesis (1991): (1) NEP, (2) hybrid NEP/NTP, (3) hybrid with power beaming, and (4) NTP upper stage on the heavy lift launch vehicle (HLLV). The comparisons were based more or less on a qualitative review of complexity, stress levels and operations for each of the four configurations. Each configuration included a pressurized NEP and an NTP ascent stage propulsion system for the Mars mission.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 10117366
• Report Number(s): PNL-SA-20210; CONF-920104-28; ON: DE92006728
• Resource Relation: Conference: 9. symposium on space nuclear power systems,Albuquerque, NM (United States),13-16 Jan 1992; Other Information: PBD: Jan 1992
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
MARS SPACE PROBES
SPACE FLIGHT
SPACE PROPULSION REACTORS
RELIABILITY
SPACE VEHICLES
PROPULSION SYSTEMS
PROPULSION
STRESSES
REACTOR COMPONENTS
URANIUM 235
REACTOR OPERATION
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
210600
POWER REACTORS, MOBILE, PROPULSION, PACKAGE, AND TRANSPORTABLE