Report No. PUR - 11 A Cost-Effective Space Infrastructure for Retrieval of Helium-3 from Uranus for Earth- Based Fusion Power Systems utilizing the MITEE Nuclear Propulsion System by John Paniagua, James Powell and George Maise Plus Ultra Technologies, Inc. PLUS ULTRA TECHNOLOGIES, Inc. 25 East Loop Road Stony Brook, New York, 11790-3350Report No. PUR - 11 ‘A Cost-Effective Space Infrastructure for Retrieval of Helium-3 from Uranus for Earth-Based Fusion Power Systems utilizing the MITEE Nuclear Propulsion System by John Paniagua, James Powell and George Maise Plus Ultra Technologies, Inc. July 23, 1999 Note: This report was presented as Paper No. IAA-99-R.3.10 at the 50th International Astronautical Congress, October 4-8, 1999, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. PLUS ULTRA TECHNOLOGIES, Inc. 25 East Loop Road Stony Brook, New York, 11790-3350A Cost-Effective Space Infrastructure for Retrieval of Helium-3 From Uranus for Earth-Based Fusion Power Systems Utilizing the MITEE Nuclear Propulsion System John C. Paniagua, James R. Powell, and George Maise Plus Ultra Technologies, Inc. Stony Brook, New York 11790-3350 Abstract Space exploration and commercialization of the Solar System has been severely constrained by the large energy requirements of interplanetary trajectories and the inherent AV limitations of chemical rockets. A new nuclear thermal propulsion engine design, termed MITEE (Mlniature reacTor Engin), has over twice the AV capability of H/O, rockets (and much greater when refueled with H, propellant from indigenous extraterrestrial resources) enabling unique new exploration and ‘commercialization missions not feasible with chemical propulsion. MITEE is a derivative of the 1987-93 U.S. Department of Defense program on the Particle Bed Reactor engine having a small size (50 em O.D.), low mass (200 kg), and high specific impulse (~1000 sec). A proposed space- based infrastructure involving 9 year roundtrip missions to Uranus for Helium-3 (He-3) enabled by the use of MITEE for the interplanetary portion of the missions is described. This infrastructure ‘would provide Earth-based fusion power reactors with a continuous supply of He-3. For the initial mission, three spacecraft, which form the Uranus Helium-3 Retrieval Mission, have a 3.3 year ‘outbound direct trajectory to Uranus, The three spacecraft consist of a MITEE-powered, lifting-body shuttle that enters the atmosphere of Uranus for a 7 month stay and collects He-3, a space station depot that remains in low Uranus orbit and docks with the shuttle for transfer of the He-3 cargo, and a spacecraft that returns to Earth with the hesium-3 payload. During the 7 month stay, the shuttle vehicle is refueled with H, propellant derived from the atmosphere of Uranus while collecting He-3 by cryogenic distillation and separation of its He-3 content (45 ppm). The return spacecraft has an approximate 5.3 year trip to Earth with the one-half ton He-3 payload. The shuttle re-enters the ‘atmosphere of Uranus to repeat the next cycle of helium extraction and refueling for rendezvous with the orbital depot. Because of volume limitations due to the use of H, propellant for MITEE, two Titan-IV class launchers are required for the initial mission with a total IMLEO of 28 metric tons. Subsequent missions not carrying the shuttle and docking station would use less costly Delta-IIT launchers. To increase the He-3 payload, a ramjet-based shuttle would be used in future infrastructures resulting in a yearly retrieval of 480 tons to currently satisfy all of Earth’s energy needs. The projected cost for He-3 retrieval from Uranus is approximately $1.5 billion per ton; used as.a fuel in the D-He? fusion reactors on Earth, it would produce $15 billion per ton worth of electric energy, based on the value of 5 cents/kWH and a 50% efficient direct power conversion cycle. ‘MITE could be ready for the Uranus Helium-3 Retrieval Mission in less than 6 years with a suitable development program. Recovery of He-3 from Uranus appears to be much cheaper and easier than mining the extremely large tonnages of lunar regolith, as proposed in earlier studies. 1Introduction The world’s population is expected to grow to 10 billion people by the year 2050 (1) requiring approximately 60 terrawatts of thermal energy. Present power systems can not be scaled up to provide the level of energy required to maintain the present standard of living due to fuel limitations and global warming effects. Earth-based fusion power systems figure centrally to meet the Earth's energy needs in the coming millenium. Fusion is the energy source that powers the Sun and stars. He-3, which is extremely rare on Earth, is of great interest as a potential fuel for the fusion reactors. He-3 and deuterium (D), present in small amounts in the oceans and can be extracted at modest cost, are desirable as the fuel because their reaction produces no neutrons and results in a highly efficient reaction with no neutron wall irradiation. He-3 isotope is a light gas that has escaped from Earth's atmosphere into space long ago. The giant outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune have the largest amounts of He-3 in the solar system. He-3 is also found on the Moon, albeit in lesser quantity, due to the solar wind flux implantation. Extraction of He-3 from the giant outer planets is challenging because of the difficulty of leaving their large gravitational wells. The respective escape velocities of Jupiter and Saturn are respectively 60 and 36 km/sec. Uranus and Neptune require approximately 20 km/sec. Because Uranus is one third closer to the Earth than Neptune, Uranus is the target of choice for He-3 extraction and retrieval. The initial mission detailed in this paper is based on the approach described by Lewis (2). In terms of meeting the energy demands placed on a spacecraft’s propulsion system for planetary escape from Uranus, chemical rockets can not do so because of their inherent AV limitation of ~10 km/sec. Because of the large energy requirements typical of these ambitious solar system missions, use of chemical rockets results in interplanetary spacecraft require many gravitational assists, and are prohibitive in terms of Initial Mass in Low-Earth Orbit (IMLEO) and cost. On the other hand, nuclear thermal rockets can achieve the required escape velocities and will significantly reduce IMLEO and, subsequently, costs. Moreover, nuclear thermal rockets can utilize extraterrestrial resources as propellants, an option not practical with chemical rockets. This “refueling” capability would enable nuclear rockets to carry out very high energy missions, such as the return of large amounts of extraterrestrial material to Earth. (TEE Tech Figure 1 illustrates the basic MITE concept. In contrast to the Particle Bed Reactor (3), which utilized a single relatively large pressure vessel, the MITE core consists of a set of hexagonal pressure tubes, each containing an outer shell of moderator and an inner cylindrical fuel element. The hydrogen coolant flows radially inward through each cylindrical fuel element, where the cold (~100 K) inlet hydrogen is heated to approximately 3000 K. Unlike the PBR, where the fissile fuel was comprised of coated small individual fuel particles (~ 400 microns OD), in MITE the fuel is present as fibers or particles imbedded in a metal matrix sheet. The cermet sheets form a multi-layered annular fuel element in which each sheet in the roll is perforated with optimally sized cooling holes. As in the PBR, there is a central hot gas channel inside the hot frit, along which the hot hydrogen flows to exit through an appropriately sized nozzle.THE MITEE REACTOR ASSEMBLY MITEE FUEL REGION FUEL ELEMENT REACTOR Metal Sheets ‘Be Pressure ‘ tt ™ Beryllium MULTIPLE SHEET LAYERS Depressed Zones on ‘Sheet | Metal Matrix ‘Sheets Gas Flow Holes ‘Through Sheet Figure 1. The MITEE (MIniature ReacTor Engin) Concept. In contrast to the PBR, the MITE hot gas channels do not exit into a common hot gas plenum and a single exhaust nozzle. Instead, each pressure tube has its own individual nozzle. as shown in Figure 1. The combined thrust from the assembly of nozzles provides the total engine thrust. This arrangement results in a simpler and lighter engine. Inan arrangement similar to the PBR assembly, the MITEE core has 37 elements, each being fa pressure tube, arranged in a hexagonal pattern. The core is surrounded by one or two rows (depending on design) of reflector elements, which have the same pitch as the fuel elements, and contain the same moderating material as the core. The moderator in the MITE engine is li hydride held inside beryllium jackets. Hydrogen cools the moderator in the reflector before flow into the core. The fuel element has three zones: 1) An outer zone of a beryllium metal matrix composite, containing graphite fibers that are infiltrated with uranium carbide or oxide. 2) A middle zone of molybdenum metal matrix composite, containing uranium oxide (UO,) particles. 3) An inner zone of tungsten metal matrix (the tungsten will be enriched in ™W to reduce parasitic 3neutron losses) composite containing uranium oxide (UO;) particles. The heat transfer area in the perforated metal matrix is controlled by the hole diameter and number of holes (Figure 1). Studies indicate that a perforation fraction of ~ 25% results in acceptable heat transfer performance. The gas flow holes through the sheets are located in a grid pattern of slightly depressed channels formed in the sheets. When the sheets are layered together, the raised portions prevent closure of the holes in the sheets. Gas exiting through the holes in one sheet then flows to, and enters, the holes in the next sheet. This flow arrangement helps to mix the gas flow between sheets, and reduces the chances of thermal instabilities, The first sheet in the multi- layer stack will have smaller holes in order to distribute and match the hydrogen flow to local variations in the radial, axial, and azimuthal nuclear power production. In effect, it functions like the cold frit in the original PBR reactor. Uranus Mission The Uranus mission considered in this analysis is restricted to starting from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) only afier being placed in stable orbit by a launch booster. This eases the safety concems and mitigates political issues. The high propulsive efficiency of the MITEE engine results in reduced transit times and yields the benefit of reduced costs due to smaller launch vehicles. The Uranus He-3 Retrieval mission falls into the category of orbital capture missions, which require propellant expenditure for capture upon target planet arrival (4). However, to save and minimize propellant use, the spacecraft will perform aerocapture maneuvers for braking into orbit around Uranus instead of an engine burn. Aerobraking will also be used for return to Earth. The MULIMP (5) planetary trajectory code was used to calculate the AV’s required for orbital transfers and Initial Mass in Low Earth Orbit (IMLEO) for a 2008 Earth departure opportunity. No gravitational assists were employed in this analysis, ‘The AV’s required for the 9 year roundtrip journey are listed in Table 1. The mission has a 3.3 year direct outbound trajectory with a seven month stay in the atmosphere of Uranus and culminates with an approximate 5.3 year retum trip to Earth. The spacecraft payload consists of the following three space vehicles: © Earth-Retum Vehicle (ERV) with the He-3 payload. © MITEE-powered, lifting body re-entry shuttle that enters the atmosphere of Uranus to retrieve He-3 and, if desired, H, as propellant for the Earth-retrun spacecraft. © Space station depot that remains in Low Uranus Orbit (LUO) and docks with the lifting-body shuttle for transfer and storage of the He-3 cargo. The depot can also be used to store Hi propellant for refueling of subsequent Earth-return spacecraft. The shuttle and space station depot have respective empty masses of 2179 and 800 kg. For risk mitigation purposes, the Earth return spacecraft will be sent out to Uranus fully loaded with propellant for the return trip to Earth thereby minimizing the number of shuttle re-entries for He-3 and H, propellant retrieval. The IMLEO of the fully loaded fueled Earth-return spacecraft with no He-3 payload is 2519 kg. Therefore, total outbound payload of the Uranus Transfer Vehicle (UTV), which consists of the three spacecrafi, is set at 5498 kg.Table 1: Delta v's (km/sec) Earth Departure: 12.71 Uranus Capture/Landing: 0.00 Uranus Departure: 10.89 Earth Re-entry: 0.00 ‘Vehicles Sizing and Description Earth-Return Vehicle (ERV) Because for risk-reduction prposes the ERV is carrying its own propellant for return to Earth, long-term storage of propellant (6) is required. Since nuclear and solar propellant heating both would act to boil-off this stored propellant, mitigation strategies include tank insulation, use of slush hydrogen, and active refrigeration. The system weight of the MITEE engine is estimated at 200 kg (7). IMLEO optimization studies resulted in a single-stage vehicle configuration for Earth return. After the UTV sends the ERV towards Uranus on a direct trajectory, acrobraking manuevers will be used for Uranus capture and subsequent orbit circularization. The hyperbolic excess speed upon arrival at Uranus is 23 km/sec, half the velocity of the Galileo probe's entry into Jupiter’s atmosphere. A minimum aerobrake AV of 2 km/sec is required for planetary capture and an 8 km/sec AV will attain a circular orbit around Uranus. The orbital capture can be obiained via one or multiple passes through the atmosphere of Uranus. The aeroshield is designed to withstand the heat and deceleration loads associated with re-entry. For Earth return, a disposable 1050 sec Isp stage is used for the departure burn. The spacecrait design employs a 5% tankage fraction. Adding restart capability to the single stage for Uranus capture and ensuing departure for Earth would result in a heavier vehicle and engine system due to increased design margins requirements and decay heat removal capability. The decay heating rate after engine firing is sufficient for core meltdown if cooling flow is not provided. The required cooldown propellant is typically an appreciable fraction of the impulse propellant and can amount to an extra propellant loading that would be greater than the MITEE engine system weight. For these reasons, aeroshields are employed for both Uranus and Earth capture with no engine firings, whereas a single stage rocket utilizing the MITEE engine is used for a Uranus departure bum and later jettisoned along with its propellant tank during the interplanetary coast to Earth. IMLEO is calculated to be approximately 2519 kg. Table 2 lists the IMLEO mass breakdown for the ERV spacecraft and the ERV is shown in Figure 2.Table 2: ERV mass breakdown Payload (includes aeroshield, no He-3 cargo): 250 kg Spacecraft dry mass: Engine System: 200 kg Structure/Insulation: 101 kg Spacecraft propellant loading: Delta V Propellan/Reserve: 1969 kg Cooldown Propellant: None Figure 2. The Earth Retum Vehicle (ERV). Lifting-Body Shuttle (LBS) The LBS is designed to enter the upper atmosphere of Uranus at high speeds. Unlike the ERV, the LBS will experience heat and deceleration loads from kinetic energy changes due to a total AV of 23 km/sec. A heat shield protects the shuttle during re-entry and is integrated into the undersurface of the shuttle, The aeroshield is composed of high-temperature, heat resistant composite-type material that protects the shuttle during re-entry. Once the LBS drops to subsonic speeds, parachutes are deployed to bring the LBS to very low speeds where an onboard ‘buoyancy unit extends and inflates balloons with heated atmospheric gases. The LBS then slows in its descent as it passes through denser layers of the atmosphere until it achieves neutral buoyancy (2). 6To significantly reduce the deceleration loads experienced by the re-entry vehicle, lift is incorporated into the spacecraft design. In addition, a lifting-body configuration (4) can also be used t © Increase the entry corridor width ‘© Enlarge the landing footprint and relax the deorbit requirements on the guidance and control systems © Execute plane changes with nonpropulsive aerodynamic turns with no engine burns ‘A first-order kinematic analysis of the LBS configuration shows that modest lift-to-drag ratio (L/D) of 2 will provide decelerations of approximately 0.5 g, which is significantly less than that of a ballistic entry configuration. The first-order analysis also yielded the time along trajectory from the entry point in the upper atmosphere of Uranus until the velocity is almost zero (touchdown) is approximately 75 minutes. The down-range distance covers almost 20% of the circumference of Uranus, Larger L/D ratios would increase both the down-range distance and touchdown times. To provide robustness and flexibility for the long-term infrastructure, restart capability has been incorporated into the shuttle design, Adding restart capability results in increased design ‘margins requirements and decay heat removal requirements. This, in effect, lowers the MITEE engine Isp to 950 sec. The required cooldown propellant for decay heat removal is approximately equivalent to a 3% tankage fraction. In terms of propellant loading, the LBS is sized to achieve Low Uranus Orbit (LUO) from the atmospheres of Uranus. This necessitates a thrust-to-weight (T/W) of greater than one. The LBS is depicted in Figure 3 : — 1254 yay TOM frome r- #4.4M | Figure 3. The Lifting-Body Shuttle (LBS). 04.04 7‘Table 3 highlights the mass breakdown for the LBS. The LBS fully loaded with propellant and He-3 payload is 12,719 ke, whereas the dry, empty weight is 2179 kg. The propulsion system of the LBS is comprised of five increased-thrust MITEE engines. The five MITE engines are integrated into a single unit and is each capable of producing a thrust of 3,300 kg for a total thrust of 16,500 kg. ‘The T/W is approximately 1.3. The LBS is 13.5 meters in length with a cross-sectional area of 12.6 m?, equivalent to a four meter diameter. Table 3: LBS mass breakdown Payload (He-3 cargo): 500 kg Spacecraft dry mass: Engine System (5 MITE Integrated Unit): 750 kg Aeroshield, Extraction, & Buoyancy Units: 450 kg Structure/Insulation: 980 kg Spacecraft propellant loading: Delta V Propellant/Reserve: 9794 kg Cooldown Propellant: 245 kg Total Dry Mass (no Payload): 2179 kg Total Wet Mass (with Payload): 12719 kg He-3 Extractor Unit The LBS houses an He-3 processing unit to extract He-3 from the atmosphere. The simplest and most reliable process for recovery of He-3 from the atmosphere of Uranus appears to be a sequential cryogenic condensation of the unwanted atmospheric components - principally H and He-4 with a trace of other constituents - leaving the He-3 as an uncondensed gas. The product He-3 can then be stored as a liquid or as a high density cryogenic gas for shipment back to Earth, This condensation process is possible because He-3 has the lowest critical temperature, 3.2 K, as compared to the other atmospheric components. H, has a critical temperatureof 33 K, and He- 4,52 K. The condensation process is much easier on Uranus as compared to Earth because of the lower atmospheric temperature, ~70 K compared to ~300 K. This reduces the thermal transfer loads involved in cooling the gases, and very importantly, decreases the input power requirements for refrigeration by a factor of ~5. Figure 4 gives the principal features of the C° (Cryogenic Compressor Condensation) for the recovery of He-3 from the atmosphere. ‘The recovery platform is assumed to be located at an altitude where the ambient atmospheric pressure is ~10 atm. Operating at substantially lower pressures would increase equipment weight and power requirements, while operating at much higher ambient pressures would place more stringent requirements on the recovery platform and its operation,Cryogenic Compressive Condensation Process (Cc) He-3 Recovered By Cryogenically Condensing H, and He-4 From Uranus Atmosphere, Leaving He-3 As Non-Condensed Gas Nominal Ambient Atmospheric Conditions For Purposes of Process Design Are 10 Atm & 70K Process Begins With Mechanical and/or Ram Compression of Atmospheric H,/He to 30 Atm & 100K ‘Compressed H,/He Cooled to ~70K By Heat Rejection to Ambient Atmosphere Inflowing H,/He Further Cooled to 4K In Sequence of 4 Regenerative Heat Exchangers, Condensing Out 99.999999+% of H, and 99.999% of He-4 Remaining Non-Condensed He-3 Stored As High Density Cryogenic Gas For Transport to Earth (97% He-3 Purity & 3% He-4) Outflowing He-4 and H, is Depressurized to 10 Atm & Slightly Sub-Cooled By Small Brayton Cycle Refrigerator to Cool Incoming H,/He Onboard Mechanical Work & Electrical Power Generated By Expansion of Compressed H,/He Atmosphere Through An Open Cycle Gas Turbine After Heated in Compact Nuclear Reactor If Desired, Thrust is Generated By Expansion of Hot Compressed Hy/He Through Jet Nozzle Figure 4. Principal Features of the C? Process (Cryogenic Compressive Condensation) for Recovery of He-3 From the Atmosphere of Uranus. 9‘A very important feature of the recovery process is the regenerative cooling of the incoming process gas taken from the atmosphere by the slightly cooler reject gas (i.e., Hz and He-4) after the He-3 has been extracted. This regenerative cooling greatly reduces the refrigeration power requirements as compared to a process where all of the condensation is supplied by an onboard refrigerator. The reject gas is subcooled slightly by the onboard refrigerator before it flows out through the regenerative cooling heat exchangers so that there is an appropriate temperature driving force between the incoming process gas and the outgoing reject gas. The incoming process gas is assumed to be compressed to 30 atm from the ambient outside atmospheric pressure of 10 atm. This facilitates the cooling and condensation of the H, and He-4 in the process equipment. The value of 30 atm has not been optimized, but is representative, More detailed trade studies are required to determine an optimized process, Figure 5 shows the flowsheet for the He-3 recovery process. The mechanical work to compress the incoming process gas and operate the refrigerator is provided by heating a portion of the compressed H,/ He atmosphere to ~1500K in an onboard compact lightweight nuclear reactor and then expanding the flow through a turbine. The exhaust gas is then rejected to the ambient ‘atmosphere along with the reject process gas. Figure 6 shows the concentrations of H,, He-3, and He-4 at each stage of the C? process. 99.3% of the atmospheric H, is condensed to liquid H, at 16K. The freezing point of Hy is 14.2K; the process gas temperature does not reach the freezing point, however, since it is necessary to have a non-zero AT between the incoming process gas and the outgoing reject gas. Figure 7 highlights the temperature difference between incoming and outgoing H,/He-4 process streams in the H,/He cooler unit. The remaining H2 is frozen out as asolid in the regenerative heat exchanger as the process. gas is further cooled from 16K down to 6K. A dual flow heat exchanger is required in this portion of the process inwhich one of the two heat exchangers is freezing out the small amount of residual H2 while the other warms up, releasing the frozen H2 to be rejected to the atmosphere, The two heat exchangers than switch functions, with a cycle time of a few hours. He-4 begins to condense as a liquid when the temperature of the process gas drops below its critical point of 5.2K. The He-4 continues to condense as the temperature drops further. At 4K, the vapor pressure of He-4 is 0.81 atm, he total pressure of the He-3/He-4 gaseous mixture is 30 atm, resulting in an He-3 concentration of somewhat over 97% in the remaining non-condensed gas. Table 4 summarizes the principle process parameters for the C? recovery process, for two production runs, ie., 0.5 metric tons of He-3 in a 6-month period, and 10 metric tons in the same period. The lower production rate corresponds to the initial demonstration of the He-3 recovery process and shipment back to Earth, using a stationary balloon platform for neutral buoyancy, whule the higher production rate corresponds to the steady-state support of a large-scale fusion economy on Earth, Total electrical power requirements(gas compression and refrigeration) for the C? process are ~500kW for the lower production rate, and ~10MW for the full-scale production system. These power levels can be readily supplied using a compact nuclear reactor to heat an open cycle Brayton power system with the Uranus atmosphere as the working gas. With an inlet compressor temperature of 70K and an inlet turbine temperature of 1500K, the eycle efficiency will be high, ~50%. The compact shell & tube heat exchangers have a characteristic tube diameter of ~1 mm, enabling lightweight, minimum-size units. The construction material is conventional aluminum with tube ‘wall thicknesses of ~ 15 mils (thousandths of an inch). 10snuvar) Jo araydsouny ay) wary ¢-9}] Jo A12x00ay 10} UEYOMOL “S ANB! ASMUHLYO4S — 3YIHESOWLY BIZZONHONOWHL = OL . LSNVHXS AsnvHa NOWVEFOMISE TE . i | 1 1 Wiv 01 @1SE OL 1 a aH anon tonaoud YOM azlunssaudaa sSH3UOLS MOLveRSINTH —aNigunt] © HONOUHL 2 10098NS. ' ONvdxa ! T +H 1 on ! +H ®!| |e@ i ® soarau 1 HLM NOMVESOMSE WE ! 009 1 1 +H WLV OF B11 OL { none =| Asinon ot ae La. OOS YOM > OL 1009 panooene: oLivaH aNIeunL ! 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NIDEE =D 42 waSN30NOO 74 GINOM 4O LIN 8 L te (WAULS LTNI NI9t = 1) i WaSN3QNO9 r- 2 \ | L | = & & 2 2 » ° SWVULS °H/7H SNIODLNO GNY ‘NIOON! N33IM13E SONSUAIIO SUNLVESWAL “LV Figure 7. Temperature Difference Between Incoming and Outgoing H,/He Process Streams in H,/He Cooler Unit, 13 TEMPERATURE OF OUTGOING H, & He PROCESS STREAMS, KProcess Parameters for He-3 Recovery From Uranus Atmosphere Basis = 180 Days Process Time; Ambient Atmosphere @ 70K & 10 Atm ‘Atmospheric Composition is: 89% H,, 10% He-4, 45 ppm He-3 1% Other (Atomic Concentration) Parameter 0.5 Metric Ton of He-3 10.0 Metric Tons of He-3 Process Gas Mass Flow (kg/sec) 0.55 11.0 ‘Compression Power, kW(0) 200 4000 (00% efficiency) ‘Thermal Transfer Power, kW(th) Cooler #1 (77K to 33K) 330 6600 Cooler #2 (33K to 16K) 90 1800 Cooler #3 (16K to 6K) 7 140 Cooler #4 (6K to 4K) 3 60 Refrigerator Power, kW(e) (Efficiency 25% of Camot) 14K Refrgerator 185 3700 3.5K Refrigerator RH 1404+ Heat Exchanger Area, m?* Cooler #1 (77K to 33K) 50 1000 Cooler #2 (33K to 16K) 30 600 Cooler #3 (16K to 6K) 5 100 Cooler #4 (6K to 4K) 3 100 Total Heat Exchanger Weight, kg 150 3000 He-3 Storage Pressure, atm 15 15 ‘Temperature, K 4 4 Density, kg/m? 85 85 Volume, m’ (spherical) 39 59" Vessel Weight, kg 104e* 2510*** Stress in Wall, kg/em? 1640 (24,000 psi) 1640 (24,000 psi) Miscellaneous Weight, kg 150 1500 (Compressor, Reftigerator, Piping, etc.) * 2 vessels, each containing $ metric tons of He-3 ** Graphite epoxy wall, 0.5 cm thick +** Graphite epoxy wall, 1.10 em thick, total weight for two vessels ++ Actual 4K refrigerator load at 4K taken as 8 ki/kg of He to increase operating AT 14Space Station Depot (SSD) The SSD houses the extracted He-3 for transfer to incoming ERVs for return to Earth. Preliminary studies indicate the SSD mass, including refrigeration and rotating machinery, to be 800 kg. The SSD can also function to store H, propellant transferred from the LBS to refuel the ERVs. The ERV can be sent from Earth empty of retum propellant in order to reduce IMLEO if desired. Initially, the SSD is sized to simultaneously store 2 metric tons of He-3 and 6 metric tons of H, propellant. The volumetric capacity of the SSD is ~90 m° and is designed to fit into a Titan IV payload fairing. ‘Uranus Transfer Vehicle (UTV) The UTV is a single nuclear thermal stage comprised of three MITE engines, each with an Isp of 1050 seconds. The primary mission of the UTV is to send the ERV, LBS, and space station depot on a direct trajectory to Uranus from LEO, After performing the LEO burn, the propellant tank and engine stage are jettisoned from the payload. The UTV is designed to be housed inside the fairing of a Titan TV heavy-lift launch vahivle thereby eliminating the need for an all-new booster design. Because of the volume limitations due to use of H, propellant, two separate UTVs are required for the initial mission. The IMLEOs of the UTVs and associated payloads are shown in Figure 8. Ki 3 Retri The present-day power consumption of the Earth is 8.5 terrawatts, equivalent to fusing 450 tons of He-3 per year (2). To achieve such growth in the He-3 extraction and retrieval from Uranus, a brand new design concept is required for the LBS. If the neutral buoyancy balloon concept is retained, a massive LBS on the order of 100 metric tons is required just to lift 10 tons of He-3 out of the atmosphere of Uranus. Instead, a ramjet-based shuttle design flying through the atmosphere ‘will reduce the initial mass by factors of two or more, depending on the ramjet speed at which He-3 extraction takes place. Because a ramjet design presents different sets of risks and trade-off, more detailed studies are necessary for final vehicle design optimization. The SSD and ERV would be scaled up in size accordingly to permit He-3 retrievals on the order of ~40 tons pet month back to Earth. The return trip times to Earth on a monthly basis vary between 5.3 and 6.2 year which depends on the orbital positions of the Earth and Uranus. These trip times will keep the AVs required for return to Earth at ~11 km/sec. nclusions To mine He-3 from the Moon requires the transport to the Moon of large numbers of heavy equipment to dig, heat, and separate the He-3 from the regolith, The concentration of He-3 in the regolith is very small, one metric ton of He-3 for every hundred million tons of regolith (2). The total He-3 on the Moon is sufficient to power the Earth by fusion for several centuries. The cost of transporting to the Moon the huge mass of mining equipment needs to be taken into serious consideration. ‘As compared to the Moon, the outer shell of Uranus down to ~12 atm contains sixteen million times as much of He-3 (2), Ata future consumption rate of 2,000 tons per year, this represents an 15nM HE, i | RETURN VEHICLE 25M (ERY) Lit 10M FUELING STATION eu 10.0 } + 44M 4.0M IMLEO: 15,309 kg MasSpropetan? 10,847 ke, MasSpayoasi 3319 kg. UFTING~BODY SHUTTLE, (uss) 1354 i, se IMLEO: 10,855 kg Massprptint? 7691 kg Massppyinu: 2179 kg Figure 8. Uranus Transfer Vehicles (UTVs).cight billion year supply of energy for the Earth. The preliminary cost estimate, including launchers and development of the Earth Return Vehicle, Lifting-Body Shuttle, and the Space Station Depot is projected to be on the order of $1.5 billion per ton of He-3 retrieved. The He-3 would produce $15 billion per ton worth of electrical energy, based on the value of 5 cents/kWH and a 50% efficient direct power conversion cycle. The viability of @ low-cost, light-weight, fast direct Uranus He-3 Retrieval mission has been noted using two launches of a heavy-lift booster, the Titan IV. Total roundtrip mission times are on the order of ~9 years. This mission capability is unique to the MITEE engine because of its high specific impulse and mass efficiency permits spacecraft designs that offer numerous advantages, including reduced costs due to smaller number of launches to IMLEO, subsequent reduced ground support requirements, and greater reliability. The performance increase offered by this system greatly expands our ability to explore and commercialize the Solar system, both in relatively conventional and exotic approaches as described in this paper. MITE could be ready for the Uranus Helium-3 Retrieval Mission in less than 6 years with suitable development program. Recovery of He-3 from Uranus appears to be much cheaper and casier than mining the extremely large tonnages of lunar regolith, as proposed in earlier studies. References 1. Criswell, D.R. “Summary of Twenty-First Century Power Needs and Supply Options”, Space ‘Technology and Applications Intemational Forum, Albuquerque, NM Part Three pp 1219-1224, 15 Symposium on Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion, 1998, 2. Lewis, John S., “Mining the Sky”, Addison Wesley, Reading Massachusetts, 1996, 3. Ludewig, H., et al., “Design of the Particle Bed Reactors for the Space Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Program”, Prog. In Nuc. Eng, 30, No. I, pp 1-65, 1996. 4. Hale, F.J., “Introduction to Spaceflight”, Prentice Hall Inc., New Jersey, 1994, 5, Friedlander, A., et al., “MULIMP Software Presentation and Demonstration”, Science ‘Applications Intemational Presentation to NASA MSEC, 15 Dec., 1988. 6. Venetoklis, P.S., Nelson, C., “Pluto Exploration Strategies Enabled by SNTP Technology”, ATAA-93-1951, AIAA/NASAV/OAI Conf. On Adv, SEI Technologies, Cleveland, Ohio, June, 1993. 7. Powell, J, et al., “High Performance Nuclear Thermal Propulsion System for Near Term Exploration Missions to 100 A.U. and Beyond”, Acta Astronautica, Journal of the International ‘Academy of Astronautics, Pergamon Press, Vol. 44, Number 2-4, Jan. - Feb. 1999. 7