Solar thermal propulsion status and future

Conference · Sat Feb 29 23:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:7112464

Shoji, J M; Frye, P E; Mcclanahan, J A ^[1]

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1. Rockwell International Corp., Rocketdyne Div., Canoga Park, CA (United States)

The status of solar absorber/thruster research is reviewed, and potential future applications and advanced solar thermal propulsion concepts are discussed. Emphasis is placed on two concepts, the windowless heat exchanger cavity and the porous material absorption concepts. Mission studies demonstrate greater than 50 percent increase in payload compared to chemical propulsion for a LEO-to-GEO mission. Alternative missions that have been considered for this concept include the Thousand Astronomical Unit mission, LEO-to-lunar orbit, and other SEI missions. It is pointed out that solar thermal propulsion is inherently simple and capable of moderate-to-high engine performance at moderate-to-low thrust levels. 15 refs.

• OSTI ID: 7112464
• Report Number(s): AIAA-Paper--92-1719; CONF-920373--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140700* -- Solar Thermal Power Systems
CONVERSION
DESIGN
ENERGY CONVERSION
HEAT EXCHANGERS
MATERIALS
ORBITS
PERFORMANCE
POROUS MATERIALS
PROPULSION
PROPULSION SYSTEMS
SOLAR ENERGY CONVERSION
SOLAR THERMAL CONVERSION
SPACE VEHICLES
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
VEHICLES