Award

This project aims to produce a small, very high performance, radhard, modular AC-DC Fission Surface Power (FSP) controller that incorporates a novel fine dust and EM mitigation solutions. The program focus is to develop a small radhard power manager for a lunar rover mounted FSP generator enabling long duration operation in dark conditions. The solution is based on advances in radhard ASIC controller/modulator technology and radhard bidirectional wide bandgap (WBG) bidirectional converter power topology. Future work will expand to extending the controller system to a novel GaN-based bidirectional isolated converter for system-level demonstration meeting lunar and M2M Surface mission needs, especially in regard to supporting lander and rover missions. Our initial focus being development of small nuclear fission power delivery based on power electronics that can safely operate in lunar radiation/dust environments while providing power generation in the dark conditions as to enable long duration exploration in permanently shadowed areas or during lunar nights.