SP-100 Power System Development Status JACK F. MONDT Summary The SP-100 ground engineering system development project objectives, approach and status are described. The SP-100 GES development project is phase II of a three-phase program funded and directed by three United States Federal Agencies (NASA, DOD and DOE) to develop space reactor power systems for space applications in the 10 to 1000 KWe power range. The first phase of the program lasted three years, and this was completed at the end of FY 1985. SP-100 Phase I analytically and experimentally reviewed all near-term space reactor power system candidates and selected one system that best met the project mission requirements for future civilian and military space applications. The SP-100 Phase II started in fiscal year 1986 to develop the Phase I selected space reactor power system to be technically ready for space applications in the mid- to late 1990s. The SP-100 Phase II is in the process of following a development plan that will provide the technical data base and the verified analytical design codes needed to design, fabricate and qualify space reactor power systems that meet future civilian and military mission requirements. The Phase II development approach is to perform a power system design that meets generic power system technical specifications derived from the three or four most likely early civilian and military space applications. The system design is carried out at one power level, within the 10 to 1000 kWe power range, to enough detail so that all the key system subsystem and component technical parameters are well defined. Once the generic flight system design is completed and approved, the ground engineering system analyses and experiments are conducted to validate that the generic design can, in fact, be produced. The ground engineering system consists of many separate ground experiments, all conducted to verify the critical performance parameters required to make the generic systems design a reality. To date, the generic flight system design is complete and the ground engineering system analyses and experiments are being conducted. The two critical power system lifetime components are the reactor fuel pin and the converter thermoelectric cell. The fuel pin development has made excellent progress. The fuel pellets are being fabricated in accordance with an approved specification and the accelerated fuel tests have performed better than predicted. The fuel-pin clad fabrication development has taken more effort than was originally planned but has made good progress. The thermoelectric cell has been designed in detail and separated into components with very wellJack F. Mondt, Deputy Manager, Space Operations, Space Power 100 Project, Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==