Air-Independent Solid Oxide Fuel Cells for NASA's LOX-CH4 Landers

Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle used fuel cells as main power source for vehicle and water source for life support and thermal PEM (Gemini) and Alkaline (Apollo, Shuttle) fuel cells were used Ideal for short (less than 3 weeks) missions when the required O2 and H2 can be launched with the vehicle. New missions that might require long‐duration stays in orbit or at a habitat, cannot rely on the availability of pure reactants but should also aim to be sun‐independent - a problem for which Solid Oxide Fuel Cells might be the answer. Recently, NASA has investigated & developed LOX/CH4‐propelled landers (Altair, MORPHEUS). In order to preserve mission flexibility, fuel cells are being studied as a potential power source. Much of NASA's fuel cell development has been focused on creating a dead‐headed, non‐flow through PEM fuel cells which would weigh less and be more reliable than the existing Alkaline and PEM technology; however, LOX/CH4 as a propellant introduces SOFCs as a power option due to their ability to accept those reactants without much reforming.