1762. Advanced Space Power Systems
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Paper
Abstract
A review of electrical power source concepts for application to near term space missions is presented along with a comparison of their weight and area estimates. The power sources reviewed include photovoltaic solar arrays, solar concentrators, radioisotopic thermoelectric generators (RTG), Dynamic Isotope Power Subsystems (DIPS) and nuclear reactors. the solar arrays are found to be the lightest systems in the 1-6 kWe range for a 10 year mission life but they have the largest area of the practicable sources. Solar dynamics has the smallest area of the solar systems and has the lightest mass above 20 kWe of all the solar sources when a closed brayton cycle power conversion system is used. The DIPS is the lightest weight system from 6 to 11 kWe above which the thermionic reactor is the lightest assuming a 38 foot boom is used to minimize shield weight.
