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A NASA project will test a small nuclear fission power system that could provide kilowatts or megawatts of power for space missions:
In preparing for possible missions to the Red Planet in the near future, NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) has been given the go-ahead to test a small nuclear reactor that could one day run equipment on the Martian surface.
The Kilopower project[PDF] is working to advance a design for a compact, low-cost, and scalable nuclear fission power system for missions that require lots of power, such as a human mission to Mars. The technology uses a fission reactor with a uranium-235 reactor core to generate heat, which is then transferred via passive sodium heat pipes to Stirling engines. Those engines use that heat to create pressure, which moves a piston – much as old coal-powered ships used steam pressure to run their pistons. When coupled to an alternator, the Stirling engine produces electricity.
"What we are striving to do is give space missions an option beyond RTGs [radioisotope thermoelectric generators], which generally provide a couple hundred watts or so," Lee Mason, STMD's principal technologist for Power and Energy Storage at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a NASA news release. "The big difference between all the great things we've done on Mars, and what we would need to do for a human mission to that planet, is power."
Mason said the new technology could provide kilowatts of power and even be upgraded to provide hundreds of kilowatts or even megawatts of power. "We call it the Kilopower project because it gives us a near-term option to provide kilowatts for missions that previously were constrained to use less," Mason said. "But first things first, and our test program is the way to get started."
Also at World Nuclear News.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday December 01 2017, @02:28PM (4 children)
I also came to complain about it being mechanical.
Aside from the unreliability which you cover, I would point out the vibration induced by a piston system. Especially in space. There would be the constant vibration of pistons. This vibration would be induced throughout the entire structure. A rotating shaft with an alternator induces a rotational force upon the entire spacecraft which would require periodic compensation from thrusters.
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The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 01 2017, @03:17PM (3 children)
I don't think thrusters are needed to compensate for unwanted rotation... you can use reaction wheels for that, right?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday December 01 2017, @03:28PM (2 children)
Yeah. More mechanical systems.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 01 2017, @04:23PM (1 child)
I for one look forward to our glorious mechanical future and the Victorian æsthetics it will undoubtedly renew. It's steampunk, just with nukes and no steam.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday December 01 2017, @05:05PM
nukepunk? [wikipedia.org]
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