The History of the United States’s Flight and Terrestrial RTGs

Abstract

The development of new Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) concepts and designs has led to improvements in safety, specific power, system lifetime, and efficiency. The Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power (SNAP) program consolidated several of the Atomic Energy Commission's reactor and radioisotope programs in the mid‐1950s. Initial requirements for SNAP systems came from Project Feedback, a Rand Corporation study, that originated in 1946 to evaluate the feasibility of artificial satellites. The General Purpose Heat Source RTG (GPHS‐RTG) was designed around a new heat source, the GPHS. The GPHS provided a standardized fuel form for Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) systems and improved the safety of the system. The Multi‐Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator has its origins in the early 2000s in a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) RPS Provisioning Study, which helped to set the NASA and DOE strategy for future RTG development and identify science mission needs.