9-8. Candidate Space Missions for Nuclear Generators: Study Results and Implications CLAUDE POHER Background Since 1982, three French government organizations—CNES, CEA and DGA—have been collaborating in the study of future space nuclear power systems foreseen to be in orbit after 2005 for European applications in space. The aim of this work is to establish the feasibility of such systems in Europe, their cost and best development procedures, and propose some choices for different applications. The theoretical effort is helped by some laboratory explorations of the recognized most critical technologies. Space Missions Studies In parallel with this ‘nuclear' activity performed mainly by CEA engineers, CNES have studied different French and European space missions that were suspected to be good candidates for the use of nuclear power systems in space after 2005. We began with an electric OTV, dimensioned for commercial launches in GEO by Ariane 5 of heavy payloads (12 tons). Space-based radars followed, with different performances, for civilian as well as defence applications. After that, we have taken into account problems concerning power generators for space stations, manned, visited or unmanned (microgravity factories). Then, planetary sciences applications were examined, mainly towards Mars and Jupiter. Each time, an optimized generator has been looked at, and its performance compared with concurrent technologies, such as solar generators (both photovoltaics and dynamics), RTGs, chemical hydrogen cells, etc. We then derived conclusions for each kind of mission. The LEO-GEO Electric OTV While studying electric propulsion missions, we found that it would be interesting to use an ionic argon system to augment by a factor of two the payload capacity of Ariane 5 in GEO. At this time competition between Ariane and the US Shuttle was seen as difficult at the end of the century, due to the performance and costs announced by NASA for the use of the future Centaur stage. The Ariane 5 project was, in 1982, Dr Claude Poher, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), 2 Place Maurice Quentin, 75001 Paris, France (Tel: 1 45 08 76 36). Paper number IAF-ICOSP89-9-8.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==