Advanced radioisotope power source options for Pluto Express
- California Inst. of Technology, Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab.
In the drive to reduce mass and cost, Pluto Express is investigating using an advanced power conversion technology in a small Radioisotope Power Source (RPS) to deliver the required mission power of 74 W(electric) at end of mission. Until this year the baseline power source under consideration has been a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG). This RTG would be a scaled down GPHS RTG with an inventory of 6 General Purpose Heat Sources (GPHS) and a mass of 17.8 kg. High efficiency, advanced technology conversion options are being examined to lower the power source mass and to reduce the amount of radioisotope needed. Three technologies are being considered as the advanced converter technology: the Alkali Metal Thermal-to-Electric Converter (AMTEC), Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) converters, and Stirling Engines. Conceptual designs for each of these options have been prepared. Each converter would require only 2 GPHSs to provide the mission power and would have a mass of 6.1, 7.2, and 12.4 kg for AMTEC, TPV, and Stirling Engines respectively. This paper reviews the status of each technology and the projected performance of an advanced RPS based on each technology. Based on the projected performance and spacecraft integration issues, Pluto Express would prefer to use the AMTEC based RPS. However, in addition to technical performance, selection of a power technology will be based on many other factors.
- OSTI ID:
- 187022
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950729--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
42 ENGINEERING
DESIGN
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
PERFORMANCE
RADIOISOTOPE BATTERIES
SPACE VEHICLES
SPACECRAFT POWER SUPPLIES
STIRLING ENGINES
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
THERMOELECTRIC GENERATORS
THERMOPHOTOVOLTAIC CONVERTERS
WEIGHT