The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lewis Research Center (NASA LeRC) is developing a Fortran–based model of a complete nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) vehicle to be used for piloted or cargo missions to the Moon or Mars. The proposed vehicle will use either a Brayton or K‐Rankine power conversion cycle, and either ion or magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thrusters. In support of this effort, Rocketdyne evaluated various power management and distribution (PMAD) approaches and selected a low‐frequency design that is based on the direct use of the alternator voltage and frequency for power transmission. This approach was compared with dc and high‐frequency ac designs, and selected on the basis of mass, efficiency, and qualitative assessments of power quality, reliability and development costs. This low‐frequency architecture will be used as the reference in future NEP PMAD studies and for the subsequent Fortran model development.


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    Title :

    Multimegawatt dynamic NEP PMAD study


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    10th SymposiumùSpace Nuclear Power and Propulsion ; 1993 ; Albuquerque, NM, USA


    Published in:

    AIP Conference Proceedings ; 271 , 3 ; 1197-1202


    Publication date :

    1993-01-20


    Size :

    6 pages





    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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