NuclearPowerSystem

General Mission Analysis Tool

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NuclearPowerSystem

NuclearPowerSystem — A nuclear power system

Description

The NuclearPowerSystem models a nuclear power system including power generated as function of time and distance from the sun.

For a complete descripton of how to configure all Resources required for electric propulsion modelling, see the Tutorial named Chapter 12, Electric Propulsion

Fields

Field

Description

AnnualDecayRate

The annual decay rate of the power system.

Data Type	Real
Allowed Values	0 <=Real <= 100
Access	set
Default Value	5
Units	Percent/Year
Interfaces	GUI, script

BusCoeff1

Coefficient of power required by spacecraft bus.

Data Type	Real
Allowed Values	Real
Access	set
Default Value	0.3
Units	kW
Interfaces	GUI, script

BusCoeff2

Coefficient of power required by spacecraft bus.

Data Type	Real
Allowed Values	Real
Access	set
Default Value	0
Units	kW*AU
Interfaces	GUI, script

BusCoeff3

Coefficient of power required by spacecraft bus.

Data Type	Real
Allowed Values	Real
Access	set
Default Value	0
Units	kw*AU²
Interfaces	GUI, script

EpochFormat

The epoch format for the PowerInitialEpoch field.

Data Type	String
Allowed Values	Valid Epoch format.
Access	set
Default Value	UTCGregorian
Units	N/A
Interfaces	GUI, script

InitialEpoch

The initial epoch of the system used to define power system elapsed lifetime.

Data Type	String
Allowed Values	Valid GMAT Epoch consistent with PowerInitialEpochFormat
Access	set
Default Value	01 Jan 2000 11:59:27.966
Units	N/A
Interfaces	GUI, script

InitialMaxPower

The maximum power generated at the PowerInitialEpoch.

Data Type	Real
Allowed Values	Real >= 0
Access	set
Default Value	1.2
Units	kW
Interfaces	GUI, script

Margin

The required margin between power left after power bus, and power used by the propulsion system.

Data Type	Real
Allowed Values	0 <=Real <= 100
Access	set
Default Value	5
Units	Percent
Interfaces	GUI, script

GUI

The GUI for the NuclearPowerSystem is shown below.

Remarks

Computation of Base Power

The NuclearPowerSystem models power degradation as a function of time. You must provide a power system initial epoch, the power generated at that epoch, and an annual power decay rate. Additionally, the AnnualDecayRate field models the power degredation on a per year basis. The base power is computed using

where "tau" is the power AnnualDecayRate, P_0 is InitialMaxPower, and "delta t" is the elapsed time between the simulation epoch and InitialEpoch.

Computation of Bus Power

The power required by the spacecraft bus for all subsystems other than the propulsion system is computed using

where A_Bus, B_Bus, and C_Bus are BusCoeff1, BusCoeff2, and BusCoeff3 respectively and r is the distance from the Sun in Au.

Computation of Power Available for Propulsion

Total power is compute using

Thrust power available for electric propulsion is finaly computed using

Where "delta M" is power Margin.

Examples

Create a NuclearPowerSystem and attach it to a Spacecraft.

          Create Spacecraft DefaultSC
DefaultSC.PowerSystem = NuclearPowerSystem1

Create NuclearPowerSystem NuclearPowerSystem1

BeginMissionSequence

For a complete descripton of how to configure all Resources required for electric propulsion modeling, see the Tutorial named Chapter 12, Electric Propulsion.

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