Spacecraft and mission design for the SP-100 flight experiment

Abstract

The design and performance of a spacecraft employing arcjet nuclear electric propulsion, suitable for use in the SP-IO0 Space Reactor Power System (SRPS) Flight Experiment, are outlined.The vehicle design is based on a g3 kW e ammonia arcjet system operating at an experimen{ally-measured specific impulse of 1031 s and an efficiency of 42.3 percent. The arcjet/gimbal assemblies, power conditioning subsystem, propellant feed system, propulsion system thermal control, spacecraft diagnostic instrumentation, and the telemetry requirements are described.

The technical and economic feasibility of mining the near-earth asteroids

“…(Fearn, 1982;Rudolph & King, 1984) • Arcjet: Ammonia gas heated by electric arc; models have been run for several weeks continuously, at tens of kilowatts power levels and several Newtons thrust levels; specific impulse is about twice that of chemical rockets, i.e., 600 to 800 sec, and they can potentially use any gas as propellant; technology well advanced. (Nakanishi, 1985;Deininger & Vondra, 1991) • Mass driver: Electromechanical accelerator; this propulsion method would provide thrust by ejecting at high velocity any waste solids, e.g. silicate "tailings" from prior or concurrent materials processing; thrust can be quite high; technology was under development for a few years only at a couple of institutions, M I T and Princeton.…”

Enabling a New Generation of Outer Solar System Missions: Engineering Design Studies for Nuclear Electric Propulsion

“…If NASA follows through with its plan, then all the technology needed for 10-kWe NEP will have been flight-proven, the propulsion technology having been demonstrated already with the Deep Space-1 and Dawn missions in the United States, and SMART (Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology)-1 and ongoing BepiColombo missions for the European Space Agency (ESA). Straightforward engineering adaptations (but no new technology development) will be needed to integrate the surface reactor power module with the rest of the 10-kWe NEP spacecraft, as multiple engineering studies of such systems have been undertaken previously, e.g., as identified in Taylor (Prometheus) [2005], Cameron and Herbert (Nuclear Electric Space Test Program, NEPSTP) [1993], Deininger and Vondra [1991], and Pawlik and Phillips [1977]. Purpose.…”