Late Entries 8-1. Advanced Radioisotope Space Power Systems James A. Turi1 & Robert T. Carpenter1 'US Department of Energy, Washington, DC 20545, USA; 2Fairchild Space Company, Germantown, MD 20784, USA. As the US space program moves into its fourth decade of highly successful utilization and exploration of space, even more ambitious missions are being undertaken and planned. Many of the significant accomplishments of the past and those planned for the future have been and will continue to be made possible by the use of radioisotope space power systems. As mission power levels, lifetimes and other performance requirements, such as operation in increasingly hostile environments, become more demanding, the Department of Energy's program for advancing the technology of radioisotope space power systems will continue to support the needs of the NASA and DOD space programs. This paper describes the present state-of-the-art Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) which the DOE has developed for use on the upcoming Galileo and Ulysses space exploration missions as well as the technology improvements planned in the areas of heat sources, thermal insulation, thermoelectric conversion and dynamic energy conversion for advanced radioisotope space power systems to be used in future applications. Such applications include NASA's Mariner Mark II spacecraft mission (Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby and Cassini Saturn Orbiter/Titan Probe) in the mid-1990's and the Mars Rover/Sample Return Mission in the late 1990's, as well as higher powered civilian and/or highly survivable military spacecraft programs over the next decade. (Paper number IAF-ICOSP89-8-1.) A New Perspective on Space Power Peter E. Glaser Arthur D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA. Energy supply and demand issues are reviewed in the light of potential deleterious global environmental impacts. A rationale for placing increased reliance on extraterrestrial inexhaustible energy sources is presented, and the solar power satellite (SPS) concept is introduced as an option to meet future global energy demands. The development status of the SPS and technologies for converting solar energy, microwave and laser beam power transmission and conversion into electricity are discussed. A ‘terracing' approach to permit the planned evolution of the supporting space infrastructure and the use of extraterrestrial resources for a global SPS system is described. Keynote Address: Future Prospects for Generation and Use of Energy in Space Richard Simo-Pons CNES, Paris, France. The lecture addresses the question of the demand for more and more powerful electrical space generators during the next decades. It looks at the missions needing large amounts of energy (space stations, advanced platforms for applications in telecommunications and Earth observation, man-tended free flyers for microgravity research and production, lunar and interplanetary spacecraft, etc.) and considers solar and nuclear power systems satisfying these needs. The question of international aspects of space power system development and use is also addressed.
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