Radioisotope Thermophotovoltaic (RTPV) Generator and Its Application to the Pluto Fast Flyby Mission

Abstract

The paper describes the results of a DOE-sponsored design study of a radioisotope thermophotovoltaic generator. Instead of conducting a generic study, it was decided to focus the design effort by directing it at a specific space mission, Pluto Fast Flyby (PFF). That mission, under study by JPL, envisages a direct eight-year flight to Pluto (the only unexplored planet in the solar system), followed by comprehensive mapping, surface composition, and atmospheric structure measurements during a brief flyby of the planet and its moon Charon, and transmission of the recorded science data to Earth during a one-year post-encounter cruise.Because of Pluto's long distance from the sun (30-50 A.U.) and the mission's large energy demand, JPL has baselined the use of a radioisotope power system for the PFF spacecraft. The chief advantage of Radioisotope Thermophotovoltaic (RTPV) power systems over current Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) is their much higher conversion efficiency, which greatly reduces the mass and cost of the required radioisotope heat source. Those attributes are particularly important for the PFF mission, which -like all NASA missions under current consideration -is severely mass-and cost-limited.The paper describes the design of the radioisotope heat source, the thermophotovoltaic converter, and the heat rejection system; and presents the results of the thermal, electrical, and structural analysis and the design optimization of the integrated RTPV system. It briefly summarizes the RTPV system's current technology status, and lists a number of factors that may greatly reduce the need for long-term tests to demonstrate generator lifetime. Our analytical results show very substantial performance improvements over an RTG designed for the same mission, and suggest that the RTPV generator, when developed by DOE and/or NASA would be quite valuable not only for the PFF mission but also for other future missions requiring small, long-lived, low-mass generators.