Advanced Power Sources for Space Missions (1989) / Chapter Skim
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4. Needed Technological Advances in Space Power Subsystems to Meet SDI Requirements
4. Needed Technological Advances in Space Power Subsystems to Meet SDI Requirements
Pages 52-67
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From page 52... ...
thermionic conversion, fission reactor. These selections were provided to the committee in the form of prepublication results obtained from three simultaneous, independent studies of Space Power Architecture System (SPAS)
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From page 53... ...
, the turbine design for the H2-O2 combustion system was optimized assuming free hydrogen, so that simply adding the required mass of hydrogen will somewhat overestimate the overall system mass because of mass tradeoffs between hydrogen mass and turbine mass. Another view of system mass comparisons is shown in Figure 4-2, from the lEG Field Support Team's critique of SPAS contractor reports.
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From page 54... ...
54 _~ cn o v ._ h ._ h m a' m U)
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From page 57... ...
SOURCE: Sandia National Laboratories and NASA, Independent Evaluation Group Field Support Team, using reference models they developed prior to the Space Power Architecture System (1988) studies.
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From page 58... ...
2.50 cn cn C) 11 CL co 2.00 1.50 ~ 1.00 Oh 0.50 0.00 AD VANCED PO WER SOURCES FOR SPA ClE MISSIONS Closed Thermodynamic Cycle Power Systems No Power Conditioning Mass Masses Include Hydrogen .' .— .— I' .
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From page 60... ...
For the convenience of those unaccustomed to thinking in those units, Table 4-3 shows the range of system masses from smallest to largest. Assuming typical costs per pound for development, production, and launching to orbit, and noting that the power system may range from 20 to 50 percent of the total orbital vehicle mass, these systems appear to be very large hence probably prohibitively expensive— and too massive to lift into orbit with any practical launch vehicle, unless they were launched separately and assembled in orbit, thus motivating Conclusion 2 below.
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From page 62... ...
SPAS = Space Power Architecture System. TABLE 4-4 Range of Reactor and Turbogenerator Biasses of Two SPAS Multimegawatt Space Power Systems Reactor Mass System Metric Tons Kilograms Pounds Reactor (Rankine)
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From page 63... ...
Therefore, advances in current materials technology could provide high-temperature, creep-resistant materials that could greatly reduce the radiator mass required (Rosenblum et al., 1966; Buckman and Begley, 1969; Devan and Long, 1975; Klopp et al., 1980; DeVan et al., 1984; Stephens et al., 1988~. For example, if the technology for carbon-carbon composites were sufficiently advanced so as to provide a material for constructing a Brayton cycle power plant, it ~ conceivable that the turbine-inlet temperature could be raised from the 1500°K stated in Table 4~1 to 2000°K.
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From page 64... ...
Power conditioning and energy storage Low-mass, fast-pulsed energy storage Ground-based, slow-pulsed energy storage Low-mass inverter transformer Low-mass inductor components Power transmission lines Air Force, SDI Air Force, Army, BTI, DARPA Air Force, Army, BTI, DARPA, Nary Air Force, BTI Napery Air Force, Army, BTI, DARPA, SDI, Air Force, Army, DNA, SDI Air Force, SDI Air Force, DNA, SDI Air Force, Army, BTI, DARPA, DNA, Navy, SDI NOTE: BTI = Balanced Technology Initiative; DARPA = Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; DC = direct current; DNA = Defense Nuclear Agency; MHD = magnetohydrodynamics; SDI = Strategic Defense Initiative ADVANCES NEEDED IN POWER-CONDITIONING AND PU[SE-GENERATING TECHNOLOGIES Superconducting Materials Superconductors are potentially useful throughout the power system/weapon system. The importance of superconductors in power applications lies in their ability to carry large current densities with essentially no resistive losses.
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From page 65... ...
The same TABLE 4-6 Potential Department of Defense (DOD) Applications of Superconductors for Weapons Components Weapon Application Responsible DOD Organizations Directed Energy Laser RF cavities Wiggler magnets Electron beam guidance magnets Particle beam RF cavities Beam-guiding magnets Focusing magnets Kinetic Energy (electromagnetic launchers)
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From page 66... ...
Newer applications requiring very fast pulses or very high average powers have met with cli~culties, in that the present state of the art in component technology is generally inadequate to achieve the desired level of performance (Rohwein and Sarjeant, 1983~. These applications have not offered sufficient economic impact to stimulate substantial corporate investment in a new technology base required to establish the next generation of power-conditioning designs.
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From page 67... ...
~-vehicIe-system preli~n;nary design study for two substantially different candidate power systems for a common weapon platform should be performed now, in order to retreat secondary or tertiary requirements and limitations in the technology base which are not readily apparent in the current space power architecture system studies. Care should be exercised in establishing viable technical action and performance requirements, including Livability, maintainability, availability, teammate, voltage, current, torque, effluents, and so on.
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