Past work has shown that Brayton power converters are an attractive option for high power, long‐duration space missions. More recently, Creare has shown that Brayton technology could be scaled with high efficiency and specific power to lower power levels suitable for radioisotope power conversion systems. Creare is currently leading the development of an advanced turbo‐Brayton converter under NASA’s Prometheus Program. The converter design is based on space‐proven cryocooler technologies that have been shown to be safe; to provide long, maintenance‐free lifetimes; and to have high reliability, negligible vibration emittance, and low EMI/EMC. The predicted performance of a converter at the beginning of life is greater than 20% (including electronic inefficiencies and overhead) with a converter specific power of greater than 8 We/kg for a test unit and greater than 15 We/kg for a flight unit. The degradation in performance over a 14‐year mission lifetime is predicted to be negligible, and the primary life limiting factor is not expected to be an issue for greater than twice the mission duration. Work during the last year focused on the material and fabrication issues associated with a high temperature turbine and a lightweight recuperator, and the performance issues associated with the high‐temperature insulation and power conversion electronics. The development of the converter is on schedule. Thermal vacuum testing to demonstrate a technology readiness level of 5 is currently planned for 2006.


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    Title :

    An Advanced Turbo‐Brayton Converter for Radioisotope Power Systems



    Conference:

    SPACE TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS INT.FORUM-STAIF 2005: Conf.Thermophys in Micrograv;Conf Comm/Civil Next Gen.Space Transp; 22nd Symp Space Nucl.Powr Propuls.;Conf.Human/Robotic Techn.Nat'l Vision Space Expl.; 3rd Symp Space Colon.; 2nd Symp.New Frontiers ; 2005 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA)


    Published in:

    AIP Conference Proceedings ; 746 , 1 ; 632-640


    Publication date :

    2005-02-06


    Size :

    9 pages





    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



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