McAlpine, William | Engineering Papers

NASA NTRS2012

JUNO Photovoltaic Power at Jupiter

This paper summarizes the Juno modeling team work on predicting the Juno solar array performance at critical mission points including Juno Orbit Insertion (JOI) and End of Mission (EOM). This report consists of background on Juno solar array design, a summary of power estimates, an explanation of the modeling approach used by Aerospace, a detailed discussion of loss factors and performance predictions, a thermal analysis, and a review of risks to solar array performance

solar powered mission↗

NASA NTRS2012

JUNO - Photovoltaic Power at Jupiter

No abstract available

solar array↗

NASA NTRS2006

Lunar Surface Reactor Shielding Study

Nuclear reactor system could provide power to support a long term human exploration to the moon. Such a system would require shielding to protect astronauts from its emitted radiations. Shielding studies have been performed for a Gas Cooled Reactor (GCR) system because it is considered to be the most suitable nuclear reactor system available for lunar exploration, based on its tolerance of oxidizing lunar regolith and its good conversion efficiency (Wright, 2003). The goals of the shielding studies were to provide optimal material shielding configuration that reduces the dose (rem) to the required level in order to protect astronauts, and to estimate the mass of regolith that would provide an equivalent protective effect if it were used as the shielding material. All calculations were performed using MCNPX code, a Monte Carlo transport code.

Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX)↗