PASSIVELY COOLED HIGH TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTIVE BUS FOR SPACE POWER SYSTEMS

AS SPACE SYSTEMS TEND TOWARD HIGHER POWER LEVELS (10 TO 100 KW), THE BUS CONNECTING THE POWER SOURCE WITH THE SPACECRAFTBECOMES A VERY SIGNIFICANT POWER DISTRIBUTION COMPONENT IN TERMS OF WEIGHT, RELIABILITY, AND EFFICIENCY. PRESENT APPROACHES USE EITHER MASSIVE, HIGH-VOLTAGE, CONVENTIONAL COPPER CONDUCTORS OR ACTIVELY COOLED, LOW-TEMPERATURE, METALLIC SUPERCONDUCTING MATERIALS. THIS PROJECT WILL BUILDAND DEMONSTRATE A PASSIVELY COOLED SPACE POWER DISTRIBUTION BUSBAR USING RECENTLY DEVELOPED, HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTING (HTS) MATERIALS. THE USE OF HTS MATERIALS TAKES ADVANTAGE OF LOW-VOLTAGE, LOW-RESISTIVE LOSS CHARACTERISTICS SIMILAR TO CONVENTIONAL SUPERCONDUCTORS, WHILE THE INCREASED OPERATING TEMPERATURES MAKE IT FEASIBLE TO ELIMINATE THE CRYOCOOLER COMPONENT BY USING PASSIVE RADIATIVE HEAT TRANSFER TO SPACE. COMPARED WITH THE ALTERNATIVES, THE HTS SYSTEM WILL HAVE THE BENEFITS OF LESS MASS (LESS CROSS-SECTIONAL AREA TO CARRY THE CURRENT), GREATER RELIABILITY (BY NOT REQUIRING CRYOCOOLERS OR HIGH-VOLTAGE METEOR-PROOF ENCLOSURES), AND REDUCED NEEDS FOR POWER CONDITIONING EQUIPMENT. THIS PROJECT WILL DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF DEMONSTRATING THE HTS BUSBAR APPROACH IN PHASE I. A DEMONSTRATION TEST, USING PROTOTYPICAL COMPONENT HARDWARE, WILL BE PERFORMED IN PHASE II. AS SPACE SYSTEMS TEND TOWARD HIGHER POWER LEVELS (10 TO 100 KW), THE BUS CONNECTING THE POWER SOURCE WITH THE SPACECRAFTBECOMES A VERY SIGNIFICANT POWER DISTRIBUTION COMPONENT IN TERMS OF WEIGHT, RELIABILITY, AND EFFICIENCY. PRESENT APPROACHES USE EITHER MASSIVE, HIGH-VOLTAGE, CONVENTIONAL COPPER CONDUCTORS OR ACTIVELY COOLED, LOW-TEMPERATURE, METALLIC SUPERCONDUCTING MATERIALS. THIS PROJECT WILL BUILDAND DEMONSTRATE A PASSIVELY COOLED SPACE POWER DISTRIBUTION BUSBAR USING RECENTLY DEVELOPED, HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTING (HTS) MATERIALS. THE USE OF HTS MATERIALS TAKES ADVANTAGE OF LOW-VOLTAGE, LOW-RESISTIVE LOSS CHARACTERISTICS SIMILAR TO CONVENTIONAL SUPERCONDUCTORS, WHILE THE INCREASED OPERATING TEMPERATURES MAKE IT FEASIBLE TO ELIMINATE THE CRYOCOOLER COMPONENT BY USING PASSIVE RADIATIVE HEAT TRANSFER TO SPACE. COMPARED WITH THE ALTERNATIVES, THE HTS SYSTEM WILL HAVE THE BENEFITS OF LESS MASS (LESS CROSS-SECTIONAL AREA TO CARRY THE CURRENT), GREATER RELIABILITY (BY NOT REQUIRING CRYOCOOLERS OR HIGH-VOLTAGE METEOR-PROOF ENCLOSURES), AND REDUCED NEEDS FOR POWER CONDITIONING EQUIPMENT. THIS PROJECT WILL DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF DEMONSTRATING THE HTS BUSBAR APPROACH IN PHASE I. A DEMONSTRATION TEST, USING PROTOTYPICAL COMPONENT HARDWARE, WILL BE PERFORMED IN PHASE II.