SP-100 Generic Flight System Design and Early Flight Options

Nuclear electric ion propulsion for three deep space missions

“…It operated for about 40 days, producing a maximum of 650 W of electrical power, and had a specific mass of about 670 kg/kW. Two decades later a 100 kW reactor was designed as part of the SP-100 space reactor program which incorporated lithium cooling, uranium nitride fuel elements and a thermoelectric power conversion system [16]. The overall mass of the system would have been about 4600 kg, including radiation shield, giving a specific mass of about 46 kg/kW if everything worked as intended.…”

Uses of Liquid-Metal and Water Heat Pipes in Space Reactor Power Systems

“…The baseline radiator panel design in Fig. 17 capitalizes on demonstrated operation and lifetime of liquid metal heat pipes during the SP-100 program (Rovang et al, 1991;Josloff et al, 1994;Marriott and Fujita, 1994;Juhasz & Rovang, 1995).…”

“…In these power systems, liquid-metal and water heat pipes have also been proposed for the heat rejection radiator panels, depending on the heat rejection temperature (e.g., Ranken, 1982;Angelo and Buden, 1985;El-Genk, Buksa and Seo, 1988;Moriarty and Determan, 1989;Gunther, 1990;Trujillo et al, 1990;Rovang et al, 1991;Harty and Mason, 1993;Marriott and Fujita, 1994;Josloff et al, 1994;Juhasz and Rovang, 1995;Tournier, 2004a and2006a;Schmitz et al, 2005;Tournier and El-Genk, 2006).…”

“…A number of space reactor power system concepts have been developed or proposed with liquidmetal heat pipes for the passive and redundant removal and transport of the fission power generated in the reactor to the energy conversion subsystem (Angelo and Buden, 1985;El-Genk, 1994 and2008b;Ranken, 1982 andDeterman and Hagelston, 1992;, Poston et al, 2002;Ring et al, 2003; These heat pipes have also been considered for transporting waste heat from the energy conversion subsystems, and redundant and enhanced performance of heat rejection radiators. Energy conversion options considered for uses in space reactor power systems include Free-Piston Stirling Engine, FPSE (e.g., Angelo and Buden, 1985;Moriarty and Determan, 1989;Schreiber, 2001;Thieme et al, 2002 and2004;Schmitz et al, 1994 and2005), Thermoelectric (e.g., Ranken, 1982;Moriarty and Determan, 1989;Josloff et al, 1994;Marriott and Fujita, 1994;Caillat et al, 2000;Saber, 2003 and2005;Tournier, 2006b, El-Genk, 2008), Closed Brayton Cycle (CBC) with rotating turbo-machines (e.g., Harty and Mason, 1993;Shepard et al, 1994;Barrett and Reid, 2004;Barrett and Johnson, 2005;Gallo and El-Genk, 2009;El-Genk et al 2010;El-Genk, 1994 and2008), Potassium Rankine cycle (Angelo and Buden, 1985;Yoder and Graves, 1985;Bevard and Yoder, 2003), Thermionic (e.g., El-Genk and Paramonov, 1999;Ranken, 1990;…”