Dynamic Energy Conversion: Vital Technology for Space Nuclear Power

Mason, Lee S.

doi:10.1061/(asce)as.1943-5525.0000318

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 22 publications

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“…The PCS's main components include a heat cycle that takes the heat from the reactor and processes it to a turbine that spins a generator. Different heat cycles have been proposed for PSCs, including Rankine/Hern, Thermo-acoustic, Brayton, and Stirling [60][61][62]; however, the Brayton cycle has attracted more interest due to its high efficiency, long life, and scalability to high power [63]. The turbine in the PCS is designed to operate at temperatures above 1300 K [62], with a speed range of up to 75,000 rpm for the turbine [62].…”

Section: The Role Of Mw-scale Propulsion In Interplanetary Travelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spacecraft Medium Voltage Direct-Current (MVDC) Power and Propulsion System

Talebzadeh,

Beik

2024

Electronics

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This paper introduces a medium voltage direct-current (MVDC) system for large spacecraft megawatt-scale (MW) power and propulsion systems intended for interplanetary transport, including missions to the Moon and Mars. The proposed MVDC system includes: (i) A nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) that powers a permanent magnet (PM) generator whose output is rectified and connected to the MVDC bus. (ii) A solar photovoltaic (PV) source that is interfaced to the MVDC bus using a unidirectional boost DC-DC converter. (iii) A backup battery energy storage system (BESS) that connects to the MVDC bus using a bidirectional DC-DC boost converter. (iv) A dual active bridge (DAB) converter that controls the power to the spacecraft’s electric thruster. The NEP serves as the main power source for the spacecraft’s electric thruster, while the solar PV and BESS are intended to provide power for the payload and spacecraft’s low-voltage power system. The paper will (i) provide a review of the spacecraft MVDC power and prolusion system highlighting state-of-the-art main components, (ii) address the control of boost converters for the PV and BESS sources and the DAB converter for the thruster, and (iii) propose an uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE) concept based on current control algorithms to mitigate MVDC instability due to unpredictable factors and external disruptions. The proposed UDE can actively estimate and compensate for the system disturbance and uncertainty in real time, and thus, both the system tracking performance and robustness can be improved. Simulation studies have been conducted to substantiate the efficacy of the proposed schemes.

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