| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2020 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Energy Technologies and CO2 Management Symposium
|
| Presentation Title |
E-47: Advanced Skutterudite-based Unicouples for A Proposed Enhanced Multi-mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator |
| Author(s) |
Brian Phan |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Brian Phan |
| Abstract Scope |
In order to enable explorations into deep space, spacecraft power systems must be carefully designed to be robust and sustainable over the lifetime of missions. Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTG’s) have been employed on several NASA missions; most recently, on Mars, Curiosity rover’s Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) has provided the necessary power to deliver all of its groundbreaking discoveries. An effort began to produce an Enhanced Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (eMMRTG) that would replace the MMRTG materials with skutterudite (SKD) based thermoelectric materials that are not only intrinsically more efficient than the MMRTG thermoelectric materials, but will allow for higher operating temperature. Approximately 25% more power at beginning of life and 50% more power at end of mission could be gained by eMMRTG compared to MMRTG. The progress on manufacturability and performance validation through life test data on the SKD unicouples that have been developed and tested will be discussed. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |