capability. Less than five years ago it was considered a major achievement to build and successfully operate a 3 kWe free-piston Stirling engine. Advanced Stirling Technology The Advanced Stirling Technology project is a significant segment of the NASA CSTI High Capacity Power element. The objective of the project is to demonstrate the capability needed to proceed toward development of space qualified free-piston Stirling engine technology to meet future mission needs. At this point, a fair question is, ‘Why free-piston Stirling for space power?'. The Stirling free-piston system has many attractive attributes, several of which are tabulated in Fig. 2. Specifically, the Stirling cycle has the highest efficiency for the same given heat input and heat rejection temperatures. Because the Stirling system employs the gas bearing—either hydrodynamic or hydrostatic—there is the potential for long life and high reliability.
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