[en] This paper summarizes the functional and system imposed design constraints and development issues related to military space nuclear power thermal management. The envisioned requirements related to power level, power form and profile, operating duration, and life encompass a wide variety of conceptual future military spacecraft missions. ''Baseload,'' near-constant power output, and ''burstload,'' high peak to average power profile requirements introduce a wide spectrum of potential space reactor configuration needs with a corresponding range of steady state and transient, periodic thermal management technological needs. Spacecraft system operational conditions and design constraints (allowable power/payload mass and volume fractions, survivability and endurability, autonomy, integrability, and orbital operations considerations) impose additional thermal management technological needs. Candidate thermal management technologies are described in terms of their attributes and state of development

[en] Growing interest in new classes of military and civil space systems which demand substantial increases in power over current satellites has generated a renewed interest in space qualified nuclear power systems. Indeed, one can say that power is a limiting technology to the achievement of many of our future goals in space. Notwithstanding the general acknowledgement of this statement, however, the speed of nuclear power system development is currently limited by the lack of a clear distinct definition of system requirements

[en] I would like to talk about how space nuclear power fits into space programs in general. You are aware that NASA identified a civilian use that would require nuclear power on the order of 100 kilowatts - that is planetary exploration - before the military indicated their interest. Actually there are many possible civilian and military uses for space nuclear power. I would like to briefly review them because it provides insight into the future direction of the US space program. I would also like to discuss the baseline directed energy weapons program that appears to be emerging

[en] Space nuclear reactor power is expected to enable many new space missions that will require several times to several orders of magnitude anything flown in space to date. Power in the 100-kW range may be required in high earth orbit spacecraft and planetary exploration. The technology for this power system range is under development for the Department of Energy with the Los Alamos National Laboratory responsible for the critical components in the nuclear subsystem. The baseline design for this particular nuclear sybsystem technology is described in this paper; additionally, reactor technology is reviewed from previous space power programs, a preliminary assessment is made of technology candidates covering an extended power spectrum, and the status is given of other reactor technologies

[en] Requirements for electrical and propulsion power for space are expected to increase dramatically in the 1980s. Nuclear power is probably the only source for some deep space missions and a major competitor for many orbital missions, especially those at geosynchronous orbit. Because of the potential requirements, a technology program on reactor components has been initiated by the Department of Energy. The missions that are foreseen, the current reactor concept, and the technology program plan are described

[en] The shielding considerations for an unmanned space reactor system are somewhat different from those for a terrestrial reactor. An unmanned operation in space implies that only a shadow shield, rather than a 4π one, is required to protect payload hardware that typically can tolerate 10⁴ to 10⁶ times more radiation than can a human crew. On the other hand, the system mass, of which the radiation shield can be a significant fraction, is a severe constraint for space reactors and not normally a problem with terrestrial ones. The object of this paper is to briefly summarize advancements made on various aspects of low mass shield design for space reactors, including materials and their arrangements, geometric factors and their potential impact on system design optimization, and proposed new configuration concepts for further mass reduction

[en] Summary only

[en] The SP-100 Ground Engineering System (GES) test will be a full-scale land based demonstration of the SP-100 space reactor. The test reactor will be representative of a 300 KWe (8000 kWt) power system. The reactor is a compact fast reactor cooled with lithium and operated at high coolant temperatures. The primary heat transport system will be constructed of refractory metals and enclosed in a high-quality vacuum chamber. The GES Site Operator will be responsible for providing facilities, equipment, reactor operations, and technical expertise to assemble, operate, and disassemble the test article. The Hanford Site facilities are used during four stages of the test: facilities for the pretest assembly of components; the primary facility for reactor operations and conduct of the nuclear tests; post-test examination facilities; and finally decommissioning and disposal

No abstract available

[en] The current 100-kW/sub e/ space nuclear power technology program could provide an electric power source for nuclear electric propulsion. The power plant is relatively compact, light weight, and has the advantages of long life and immunity to degradation while passing through the Van Allen belts. The reactor is a unique design using heat pipes to transfer heat from the reactor core to the thermoelectric converters. The converters are an improved design over those used in the radioisotope space program. The radiator, used to eliminate waste heat to space, also makes use of heat pipes. All single failure points have been eliminated from the power plant design and redundancies are provided to ensure high reliability. The power plant configuration and some key results of the current component experimental program are discussed