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Fission power is a promising technology, and it has been proposed for several future space uses. It is being considered for high-power missions whose goal is to explore the solar system and even beyond. Space fission power has made great progress when NASA’s 1 kWe Kilowatt Reactor Using Stirling TechnologY (KRUSTY) prototype completed a full power scale nuclear test in 2018. Its success stimulated a new round of research competition among the major space countries. This article reviews the development of the Kilopower reactor and the KRUSTY system design. It summarizes the current missions that fission reactors are being considered as a power and/or propulsion source. These projects include visiting Jupiter and Saturn systems, Chiron, and Kuiper belt object; Neptune exploration missions; and lunar and Mars surface base missions. These studies suggest that the Fission Electric Propulsion (FEP)/Fission Power System (FPS) is better than the Radioisotope Electric Propulsion (REP)/Radioisotope Power System (RPS) in the aspect of cost for missions with a power level that reaches ~1 kWe, and when the power levels reaches ~8 kWe, it has the advantage of lower mass. For a mission that travels further than ~Saturn, REP with plutonium may not be cost acceptable, leaving FEP the only choice. Surface missions prefer the use of FPS because it satisfies the power level of 10’s kWe, and FPS vastly widens the choice of possible landing location. According to the current situation, we are expecting a flagship-level fission-powered space exploration mission in the next 1-2 decades.

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Discharge monitor is a kind of primary payload monitor loaded on the manned spacecraft in the Low Earth Orbit, which is designed for monitoring the secondary discharge problem on the solar array. The issue of integrated electronic device heat dissipation is the key for normal operation supporting. In this study, the integral payload is simulated by finite element method, through structure modeling, based on the theory of heat conduction and heat radiation. In the result, under the measures of adjusting the layout of the electronic devices, coating the circuit board with copper, and black anodization for the case, the payload could definitely meet the needs of the heat dissipation in the extreme conditions, survive safely and functionalize perfectly in the orbit, at least from the angle of thermal design.

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