Nuclear Electric Propulsion Outline

Options Chart'''
 * '''NEP

Architecture (w/study)'''
 * '''Reactor

variants in 1987 on Cosmos 1818 and Cosmos 1867 while unfueled of Power Engineering) institute and Rosatom
 * First US reactor in space: SNAP-10A
 * USAF April 1965
 * TOPAZ
 * USSR
 * Begun 1961
 * Thermionic reactor
 * Two
 * TOPAZ 1
 * Flown
 * 5 kWE for 3-5 years
 * 12 kg fuel
 * mass 320 kg
 * TOPAZ II
 * First seen by west 1991
 * 96% enriched UO2
 * ZrH Moderator
 * rotating beryllium drums
 * NaK coolant
 * Six brought to US and extensively (and sucessfully) tested reactor
 * Very nice feature to have with your reactor
 * None ever flown
 * Pebblebed
 * SAFE (Safe Affordable Fission Engine
 * Currently SAFE-400
 * 400 kWT
 * 100 kWE
 * Closed Brayton
 * Uranium nitride fuel
 * rhenium cladding
 * Molybdenum-sodium coolant
 * TEM “transport and energy unit” (per wikipedia)
 * Russia
 * Russian Keldysh Research Center NIKIET (Research and Design Institute
 * Reactor
 * He/Xe coolant
 * 3.8 MWT, 1 MWe
 * Xenon propellant
 * Thrust 18 N
 * isp 700 s

Conversion Systems (w/max, min, and ideal inlet and exhaust temp)''' fluids, He and Xe being popular fluid that has to extend over wide range of temperatures generation RTG. gradient parts and maintenance/failure probability
 * '''Power
 * Brayton
 * Same as most gas turbines
 * Closed cycles developed using most of the inert gasses as working
 * Rankine
 * Same as most steam turbines
 * Not as popular as Brayton, partly due to phase change in working
 * Sterling
 * Also called a “thermal engine,” this is being looked at for next
 * Minimum of moving parts, able to operate with much lower temperature
 * Thermoelectric
 * Graphene
 * AMTEC
 * Alkali Metal Thermal-to-Electric Converter
 * NASA program
 * Theoretical materials solution to energy conversion, reducing moving
 * Pyroelectric
 * Thermionic
 * Temperature difference causes a carrier charge
 * Propellant
 * Argon
 * Colloid
 * Ion and electrostatic
 * Helium
 * Bismuth
 * Krypton
 * Magnesium
 * Iodine
 * Cadmium
 * Easy to ionize
 * erodes grid
 * popular before Xe
 * Mercury (same as above)
 * Caesium (same as above)
 * Xenon
 * Currently most popular
 * Ionizes easily
 * doesn’t react to grids or other thruster parts

type'''
 * '''Thruster



drives
 * Electrostatic
 * Gridded Electrostatic Ion Thrusters
 * Xenon
 * NASA NSTAR
 * Radiofrequency ion thruster
 * Hall Effect Thrusters
 * Xenon, Bismuth, Iodine
 * SPT – Stationary Plasma Thruster
 * TAL – Thruster with Anode Layer
 * Colloid ion thruster
 * Field Emission Electric Propulsion
 * Caesium, Indium
 * Nano-particle field extraction thruster
 * Electrothermal
 * Arcjet
 * Resistojet
 * Electromagnetic
 * Electrodeless plasma thruster
 * Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster
 * Pulsed Inductive Thruster
 * Pulsed Plasma Thruster
 * Helicon Double Layer Thruster
 * VASIMR
 * Photon

to BNTR'''
 * '''Comparison