POWER CONTROL-

ELECTRONIC CONTROL CIRCUITS FOR NUCLEAR REACTOR OR RADIOISOTOPIC GENERATED POWER ON SPACE PLATFORMS WILL BE SUBJECTED TO INTENSE HOSTILE THERMAL AND RADIATION ENVIRONMENTS. CURRENT SOLID-STATE ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS CANNOT ENDURE SUCH ENVIRONMENTS WITHOUT EXTENSIVE SHIELDING AND COOLING. VACUUM INTEGRATED CIRCUIT TECHNOLOGY CURRENTLY EMERGING OFFERS ELECTRONIC DEVICES WITH THE ROBUSTNESS OF VACUUM TUBES AND THE COMPACTNESS OF SOLID-STATE TECHNOLOGY TECHNIQUES. APPLICATIONS OF RECENT RESEARCH IN THE FIELD HAVE BEEN VERY LIMITED. THIS EFFORT WILL EVALUATE THIS TECHNOLOGY FOR BROADER APPLICATIONS TO THE CONTROL OF SPACE NUCLEAR POWER GENERATORS AND WILL DEVELOP A DESIGN STRATEGY FOR A HYBRID SYSTEM OF VACUUM INTEGRATED CIRCUIT TECHNOLOGY AND CONVENTIONAL SOLID-STATE TECHNOLOGY SUITABLY SHIELDED. THIS STRATEGY WILL BE BASED ON A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE DESIGN REQUIREMENTS AND CAN BE SIMILARLY APPLIED TO OTHER SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS.