NEW FRONTIERS AND DISCOVERY CLASS SCIENCE MISSIONS COVER A BROAD RANGE OF SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES AND MISSION…

Public award description

NEW FRONTIERS AND DISCOVERY CLASS SCIENCE MISSIONS COVER A BROAD RANGE OF SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES AND MISSION DESTINATIONS. TO ADDRESS NASA'S NEED FOR ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS THAT CAN EFFECTIVELY OPERATE IN BOTH NEAR EARTH AS WELL AS TO OUTER PLANETS AND OTHER CELESTIAL BODIES, NASA-GRC HAS BEEN DEVELOPING A WIDE THROTTLE RANGE HIGH VOLTAGE HALL ACCELERATOR CALLED HIVHAC. THIS THRUSTER IS ENVISIONED TO OPERATE AT POWER LEVELS FROM 300 W TO 3.5 KW WHILE PROVIDING SPECIFIC IMPULSE RANGING FROM 1200 TO 2700 SECONDS. THE KEY SUBSYSTEM OF ANY ELECTRIC PROPULSION (EP) DEVICE IS THE DC-DC POWER CONVERTERS REFERRED TO AS THE POWER PROCESSING UNIT (PPU). THE ENABLING FEATURE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PPU IS A DISCHARGE CONVERTER THAT CAPABLE OF DELIVERING THE WIDE ISP AND POWER THROTTLE RANGE ENVISIONED FOR ADVANCED EP MISSIONS. THEREFORE, IN THIS PHASE I SBIR, BUSEK PROPOSES TO DESIGN, BUILD AND TEST A DISCHARGE POWER CONVERTER CAPABLE OF OPERATING OVER A 200-700VDC; 0.3-3.5 KW OUTPUT RANGE WHILE MAINTAINING EFFICIENCIES OF 96.5 TO 98%. BASED ON OUR ANALYSIS, OUR EXPERIENCE WITH THE PROPOSED TOPOLOGY AND THE REQUIREMENTS OF FLIGHT ELECTRONIC PACKAGING WE PREDICT THE SPECIFIC MASS OF THE DISCHARGE CONVERTER MODULE TO BE 1.2KG/KW YIELDING A TOTAL MASS OF 4.2 KG