Special Topic for Nuclear CLT: Kilopower ProjectNASA needs nuclear power to achieve a sustainable human presence on Lunar and Mars surfaces. Kilopower II addresses a gap in the NASA Technology Roadmaps (TA-03) for robust, sun-independent power generation in the 1 to 10 kWe range. NASA needs a long-life, low-cost power option for missions where solar is not practical. Future Exploratory Missions require a reliable source of power Lunar/Mars explorations including ISRU propellant production and crew life support and operations, for which there is no off-the-shelf solution. KRUSTY serves as a baseline for on follow-on human missions with multiple stand-alone units that provide redundancy/fault tolerance and flexibility for re-use at multiple sites with power needs of 1 to 10 kWe throughout the solar system (e.g. permanently-shaded lunar craters, subsurface Europa science, deep space electric propulsion, others.)
Document ID
20180008782
Acquisition Source
Glenn Research Center
Document Type
Presentation
Authors
Hernandez-Lugo, Dionne Marie (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Gibson, Marc Andrew (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Mcclure, Patrick (Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, NM, United States)
Poston, Dave (Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, NM, United States)