Space Fission Power Post #0: Introduction

Space Fission Power: A Series of Blog Posts and References

David Poston: spacenukes@gmail.com

The following series of blog posts and references intends to make the case that the US and/or other entities should be investing significantly in space fission power, and how best to establish the use of fission power in space. The first few posts are more philosophical in nature, and as such are more opinion and less fact, while the latter posts are based on historical and technical arguments. The meat of the content is in posts 6 and 7 (and the references referred to within), which detail the technologies that should be invested in now.  While I am the leader of the space fission reactor team at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the opinions in these papers are mine alone.  The papers, and especially the references, are largely a collection of work that I and others have done over the years; as such there are redundancy and transition issues between papers and themes. I have drawn upon the good work and ideas of many others in this text, but probably the two greatest contributors to this philosophy and content are Mike Houts and Lee Mason, and past/current members of the LANL space reactor design team, most notably Rick Kapernick and David Dixon. The actual list of contributors and space reactor enthusiasts would take pages, which I might eventually complete as part of this project.

My career has been dedicated to space fission power, from my PhD thesis in nuclear thermal propulsion, to working on the SP-100 reactor at GE, to my 17 years at Los Alamos trying to get reactors used in space. So far, I have been unsuccessful, which is why I am creating this series of blog posts as a different approach.  My experience helped me write these papers, but I am the last person to suggest that experience makes you more qualified to be an expert; all too often I’ve found cases where a young, bright student has better ideas and can perform better work than a person with a resume that shows 20 years of experience in a particular field.  Likewise there is “bias” in these documents, but my goal it that this bias is based on good information, technical facts, and logical conclusions.  My only true bias is that we should spending far more time and resources getting ourselves established in space, and the rest of my opinions stream from there.

Below is the list of blog posts. I’d appreciate it if anyone that comes across these documents (and chooses to read them) gives me feedback on how to change or improve.

Spacenuke Post #1: We need to explore and expand our presence in space

Spacenuke Post #2: Abundant power is the key to space exploration

Spacenuke Post #3: Fission power is the best option to produce abundant power in space

Spacenuke Post #4: Small steps are needed to utilize fission reactors in space

Spacenuke Post #5: First step: affordable, entry-level space fission systems

Spacenuke Post #6: Entry-Level Option: Fission Surface Power (FSP) for Mars/Moon

Spacenuke Post #7: Entry-Level Option: Low Power Space Reactor (LPSR) Systems

Spacenuke Post #8: Second Generation Space Fission Power (SFP) Systems

Spacenuke Post #9: Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP)

Spacenuke Post #10: Ultimate Goal: High-Power Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP)