Conceptual Design of High-Power Nuclear Power System on the Surface of Mars

Abstract Mars has always been an important target of deep space exploration, and it is expected to achieve the goal of manned landing around 2050. For manned Mars missions, a reliable and powerful power system is essential. Because of its simple, reliable, safe and high energy conversion efficiency, sCO2 Brayton cycle with heat pipe reactor has become a promising high-power nuclear power scheme on the surface of Mars. In this paper, the concept design of Mars surface megawatt high-power nuclear power supply system based on sCO2 Brayton cycle with heat pipe reactor was carried out. In order to explore the native application potential of Martian surface atmosphere, two working fluids (pure CO2 and the CO2+N2+Ar mixture of Martian surface atmosphere) were compared. The thermodynamic properties of working fluid in supercritical state are complex. Therefore, it is very important to use appropriate thermodynamic property calculation tools. In this paper, the commonly used calculation tools for the thermodynamic properties of working fluid were verified to select the appropriate tools. Then, the concept of Mars surface megawatt high-power nuclear power system was constructed, and the thermodynamics and mass models were completed. On this basis, the operation characteristics of the system were analyzed, and the application potential of Martian atmospheric mixture was preliminarily evaluated. Finally, the system was comprehensively optimized to determine the optimal parameter setting, finishing the conceptual design of the system and the exploration of application value of Martian surface atmosphere.