A very compact space based magnetohydrodynamic MHD power system capable of meeting space platform burst power needs is examined. An open cycle MHD disk generator concept originated by Professor J.F. Louis of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been incorporated in a nuclear power system arrangement by R.R. Holman of Westinghouse. Thermal energy for the system is provided by a nuclear reactor and the MHD disk generator is used for thermal to electric energy conversion. The nuclear reactor is a derivative of NERVA (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Applications), a technically successful program to develop a prototype flight rated engine as an expansion of the original ROVER space nuclear rocket program that began at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
A nuclear MHD disk power system for space based multimegawatt applications
Nukleares MHD Scheibenantriebssystem fuer Weltraum-gestuetzte Multimegawatt-Anwendung
IECEC, 23rd Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conf., ASME ; 3 , Aug ; 715-719
1988
5 Seiten, 3 Bilder, 6 Tabellen, 7 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Multimegawatt Nuclear Systems for Space Power
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