Solid-State Thermionic Power for Human Exploration and Commercial Generation, Year 2

Thermionic (TI) power conversion is a promising technology first investigated for power conversion in the 1960's, and of renewed interest due to modern advances in nanotechnology, MEMS, materials and manufacturing. Benefits include high conversion efficiency (20%), static operation with no moving parts and the potential for high reliability, greatly reduced plant complexity, and the potential for reduced development costs. Thermionic emission, credited to Edison in 1880, forms the basis of vacuum tubes and much of 20th century electronics. Heat can be converted into electricity when electrons emitted from a hot surface are collected across a small gap. For example, two small (6 kWe) Thermionic Space Reactors were flown by the USSR in 1987-88 for ocean radar reconnaissance. Higher powered Nuclear-Thermionic power systems driving Electric Propulsion (Q-thruster, VASIMR, etc.) may offer the breakthrough necessary for human Mars missions of < 1 yr. round trip. Power generation on Earth could benefit from simpler, more economical nuclear plants, and "topping" of more fuel and emission efficient fossil-fuel plants.

This project targets one the most critical barriers to human deep space exploration - the means to efficiently power and rapidly propel human missions to Mars and beyond. The project will explore the implementation of a high efficiency Solid-State Thermionic-based nuclear fission power systems to serve Electric Propulsion systems such as Q-thrusters, VASIMR, Hall, or other approaches. A Solid-State approach centered around advanced Thermionic power converters would combine the high efficiency of traditional dynamic power conversion (Rankine, Brayton, Stirling) with the simplicity of a static converter with no moving parts. The resulting system could enable Human Mars missions of < 1 year round trip by affording a system of megawatt power, low specific mass (<10 kg/kWe), greatly reduced plant complexity, and associated savings in development cost.#Advanced Nuclear-Thermionic power systems driving Electric Propulsion (Q-thruster, VASIMR, Hall, Ion, MPD, etc.) may offer the breakthrough necessary for human Mars missions of < 1 year round trip, resulting in significant improvement to crew health and safety, large reductions in consumables mass, mass of spares and redundancy, and reduced "window" for catastrophic hardware failure or solar flare events.#High conversion efficiency (20%), static operation with no moving parts and the potential for high reliability, greatly reduced plant complexity, and the potential for reduced development costs.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 5) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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