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NASA NTRS2022

40kW Fission Surface Power System (FSPS) Deployability

Continuous power at the kilowatt level will be imperative for future lunar users including crew infrastructure, future science, and in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). The Compass Team explored both 10 kilowatt electric (kWe) and 40 kWe concepts, assuming planned lander and rover capabilities. Both concepts found that a crew pressurized rover chassis, repurposed for deploying reactor power components, could place a fission surface power system (FSPS) at least one kilometer from users. While the 10 kWe fission power system (FPS) could be deployed as a single unit, the 40 kWe system was too large and had to be deployed in multiple trips with the same rover. Key technologies and design approaches included a high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), yttrium hydride (YH) moderated heat pipe reactor, Stirling convertors, deployable radiators based on International Space Station (ISS) designs, and power conversion/transmission at ±2800 volts of direct current (VDC).

Lunar reactor 40kW fission deployable↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A 1 MW Solar Electric and Chemical Propulsion Vehicle for Piloted Mars Opposition Class Missions

Previous investigations have extensively explored crew missions to and from Mars, with a prevailing approach termed the 'conjunction' class, necessitating an approximately 500-day stay at Mars for a cost-effective return. However, this configuration results in a mission duration exceeding 1000 days (roughly 3 years). In order to reduce crew health and surface operations risks, a shortened mission duration of 850 days is being explored by using a short ~30 day Mars surface stay and a ‘opposition’ class approach. A non-nuclear approach is possible by combining solar electric propulsion and a chemical stage. While past mission concepts for the conjunction missions also used solar electric propulsion they limited the SEP power to <700 kW. In order to achieve the 850 day round trip more SEP power is needed. A 1MW class SEP-Chem vehicle was found sufficient to perform the 850 day mission. The biggest challenge for the design will be the large, high power solar arrays, mainly from their deployment and stability. This work describes the design of the SEP-Chem vehicle, assembled in a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) and employing super-heavy class and the Space Launch System (SLS) launchers.

SEP-Chem↗