Power in space

August 19, 2026 GAO on space reactor development: coordination and safety lessons

The GAO's 1987 report on space reactor power systems development found management coordination gaps among sponsoring organizations and concerns about safety-related tasks. Nearly 40 years later, the same coordination and safety challenges recur as NASA, DOE, and DOD pursue new space nuclear programs.

August 18, 2026 Solar power in extreme space environments: the Juno precedent

The EESP project at NASA Glenn develops photovoltaic technology for missions far from the Sun, where solar intensity drops with the square of distance and radiation degrades cell performance. The Juno mission to Jupiter demonstrated that solar power is viable at 5 AU with large arrays, but the challenge scales with distance.

August 17, 2026 ASRG life certification: 17-year reliability for dynamic space power

The ASRG life certification plan confronts the fundamental problem that a Stirling engine has moving parts that wear, and that no analytical model can fully substitute for decades of test time. NASA Glenn's plan emphasizes long-term Stirling engine testing and inspection where analysis is not practical.

August 16, 2026 High-voltage PMAD: reducing cable mass on high-power spacecraft

NASA Glenn's 2012 Space Power Workshop presentation frames the central architecture trade for high-power spacecraft PMAD: raise distribution voltage to shrink cable mass and ohmic losses, at the cost of arc risk and converter complexity. Cable mass becomes a dominant fraction of power system mass as power levels climb.

August 15, 2026 Lithium-ion battery limits and the beyond-Li-ion frontier for space

NASA Glenn reports state-of-the-art Li-ion at 200 Wh/kg plateauing at 300 Wh/kg, short of the 500+ Wh/kg NASA needs. Li-air offers 3400 Wh/kg theoretical but fails after a handful of cycles due to electrolyte decomposition.

August 14, 2026 LLNL's 1 MW laser solar power beaming concept from LEO

A 2009 LLNL technical report proposes a 1 MW laser power beaming system on a single Falcon 9 to LEO, using a 50 percent efficient diode-pumped laser, 40 percent efficient concentrator PV, and inflatable optics. No integrated system has been built.