A Viable Megawatt-Class Space Power Plant under Rankine Cycle

The aim of the article concerns to the achieved research results regarding the viability of a megawatt-class space power plant based on the Rankine cycle for which the main objectives are to highlight the key issues responsible for improving the Rankine cycle efficiency. Two working fluids are studied (water and ammonia) on the basis of its well known characteristics. Cycles operating under top and bottom temperatures approaching the state of the art technology associated to cooling fluid reservoirs are key to improve the efficiency. With such strategy, the achieved thermal efficiency increases more than 20% with respect to conventional power plants. Mentioned benefits associated to the strategy based on the reduction of the required payload capacity, the condenser radiation surface and the power plant mass represent the main advantages of the proposed innovation techniques.