Dragon powerplant ;Small Fission reactor pressurized vessel hybrid power system

  Dragon power plant ; Small Fission reactor pressurized vessel hybrid power system

Small fission reactor generates electricity using thermoelectric couples

Small fission reactor radiators are inside the Capsule pressurized vessel that normally would host our human crew. This pressure vessel has a Helium/Argon atmosphere and circulates heated Helium/Argon through a sterling engine .Perhaps the Sterling engine and the small fission reactors radiator could use a second capsule docked to the first as a stirling engine heat sink?

Larger space based fission reactors could dump heat into the pressurized volumes in a Cygnus docked to a Dragon capsule.

Dragon dual capsule pressure vessel with Helium/Argon recovers heat from the radiator heat source

We use two Dragon capsules to recover heat to electricity three times, thermoelectric Stirling and lastly our Dragon capsule with the Helium/Argon with a secondary Stirling. The small Fission reactor radiator is housed inside the Pressure vessel!

7 M3 of cargo volume in the Dragon pressure vessel

2.5-m-long radiator panels

Dragon   Capsule pressure vessel  is 2.9 M long

http://www.1-act.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/IECEC-2013-High-Temperature-Heat-Pipes-for-Space-Fission-Power-Rev-2.pdf

http://www.1-act.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/NETS2013-Alkali-Metal-Heat-Pipes-for-Space-Fission-Power-Final.pdf

http://www.1-act.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ICES-2013-Intermediate-Temperature-Heat-Pipe-Life-Tests-and-Analyses-Rev-4.pdf

 A Small Fission Power System for NASA Planetary Science Missions NASA TM-2011-217099 – 1Dec11 25pp 20120000789_2012000894

mcclure-130920

oriansml_1oriansml_1

DragonLabFactSheet

Update 21 March 2014;

Icarus intersteller has a new post up in regards to Fusion engine radiators, I have borrowed some of their spreadsheets

http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/a-plumbers-guide-to-starships/

Plumbers guide to Starships-Liquids

Plumbers guide to Starships-Radiators

If a small fission reactor radiator transfers latent heat to a Helium/Argon atmosphere inside a Dragon or Cygnus how much is lost to the spacecraft hull before doing useful work in a stirling or Brayton engine?

A small  space based molten salt reactor as suggested here by Michael Eades,

Eades_Michael_Honors_Thesis (1)

would if used in the two capsule hybrid power plant create exceptional thermal energy that would put any Helium/Argon  atmosphere under some pressure.We would need to know the capsule rupture pressure state.Conceivably the capsules could use Xenon as stirling engine working fluid and  could double as a fuel source for solar electric propulsion ion engines.