Modular Isotopic Thermoelectric Generator

Schock, Alfred

doi:10.2172/1047821

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…The study reported last year [3] presented two illustrative RTG designs: a 9-watt design for direct communication to Earth and a 3-watt design for communication through an orbiting relay. Both designs strove to maximize the use of previously developed technology, including the General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) [4] used in the Galileo and Ulysses RTGs [5]; the SiGe thermoelectric materials employed in the RTGs for the Voyager, LES 8/9, Galileo and Ulysses missions, and the multicouples developed for DOE's Mod-RTG program [6,7]. Modifications were introduced only where necessary to improve the RTG's Impact resistance and to meet other mission requirements.…”

Section: Rtg Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

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RTG Impact Response to Hard Landing During Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) Mission

Schock

Mukunda

1992

SAE Technical Paper Series

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Section: Rtg Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As seen, it contains six thermoelectric multicouples similar to those used in the Modular RTG [6,7]. They are arranged in two layers of three multicouples.…”

Section: Rtg Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

RTG Impact Response to Hard Landing During Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) Mission

Schock

Mukunda

1992

SAE Technical Paper Series

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“…Multicouple development was initiated in the late 1970s [16], their present design was defined in 1983 [17], and their most successful test to date (of an assembly of eight multicouples) was a 6000-hour run at Fairchild completed in December 1988, when it was temporarily interrupted for a planned modification of the test fixture and for withdrawal of three of the multicouples for destructive examination. …”

Section: 21mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mass of four 125-watt RTGs is 6% higher than that of two 250-watt RTGs. 16. A 250-watt RTG using standard SiGe/GaP multicouples is 23% lighter, 9.4% shorter, and 7% more efficient than the baseline RTG using standard SiGe unicouples.…”

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confidence: 96%

Mars Rover RTG Study

Schock¹

1989

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The paper describes the design and analysis of Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) for powering the Mars Rover vehicle, which is a critical element of the Mars Rover and Sample Return mission (MRSR).The RTG design study was conducted by Fairchild Space Company for the Department of Energy, in support of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's MRSR project. The paper briefly describes a reference mission scenario, an illustrative Rover design and activity pattern on Mars, and its power system requirements and environmental constraints, including the RTG cooling requirements during transit to Mars. It identifies the key RTG design problem, i.e. venting the helium generated by the fuel's alpha decay without intrusion of the Martian atmosphere into the RTG, and proposes a design approach for solving that problem. Using that approach, it describes and analyzes a variety of RTG designs, all based on the proven and safetyqualified General Purpose Heat Source Module. The first RTG option described is a very conservative baseline design, employing standard thermoelectric unicouples whose reliability and performance stability has been extensively demonstrated on previous space missions. The heat source of the 250-watt RTG consists of a stack of 18 separate modules that is supported at its ends but not along its length. The paper describes and analyzes the structure that holds the stack together during Earth launch and Mars operations, but allows it to come apart in case of an inadvertent reentry. It then summarizes the baseline RTG's mass breakdown, and presents a detailed description of its thermal, thermoelectric, and electrical analyses. It examines the effect of different operating conditions (BOM/EOM, watercooled/radiation-cooled, summer-day/winter-night) on the RTG's performance. Finally, the paper compares the RTGs' specific powers for different power levels (250W/125W), different thermoelectric element designs (standard unicouples/short unicouples/multicouples), and different thermoelectric figures of merit (0.00058K ). The results presented show the RTG performance achievable with current technology, and the performance improvements that would be achievable with various technology developments. It provides a basis for selecting the optimum strategy for meeting the Mars Rover design goals with minimal programmatic risk and cost.

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“…The Fairchiid study concluded that the Solar Probe power requirements can be met by two RTGs adapted either from the unicoupie-based GPHS-RTG design [2] used for the recently launched Galileo mission or from the more advanced multicouple-based Mod-RTG design [3] under development by DOE. The Mod-RTG would yield a lighter and more compact system, but the GPHS-RTG is a very mature design that has been performance-proven and safety-qualified in extended ground and flight tests.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%