NUCLEARSPACE COMPANY PROFILE:

THE BOEING COMPANY

by

Bruce Behrhorst

  The Boeing Company is no stranger to designing and building complex space systems. So when NASA went shopping for contractors in its effort to begin construction of Project Prometheus the agency's first nuclear powered space mission of note as the JIMO (Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter) they knocked on Boeing's door.

The nation’s new space policy offers to re-energize the American public’s desire to explore the cosmos for evidence of life. With this bold vision comes the prerequisite for the country to develop technologies that enable humanity to explore the depths of the universe safely and more reliably.

The JIMO proposed mission that many in the scientific community believe might provide greater insight into the origins of life falls under NASA’s Project Prometheus.The project is an ambitious program that would develop advanced nuclear power and propulsion to open the solar system. The project’s first mission is called the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) program, and the proposed vehicle would offer 100 to 1,000 times more power than current solar or radioisotope-powered spacecraft.
Evidence from the Galileo spacecraft suggests three of Jupiter’s icy satellites offer the most promise for investigating evidence of life. The JIMO spacecraft could begin its odyssey to explore the Jovian system, orbit s the three moons and unravel their mysteries early next decade. The JIMO spacecraft might be about half the length of a football field, and the thermal energy from its small nuclear reactor, once converted to electricity, would support very high-power onboard science instruments, high-rate downlink of the data collected and efficient propulsion for flexible mission design.

JIMO would be virtually free from launch window constraints and be able to move from moon to moon in the Jovian system. Ultimately, the advantages of nuclear power mean a quantum leap in abilities to conduct space science at remote worlds.

  The mission plans to make a 'beeline' toward the Jovian system at a approximate distance from Earth of 629 million Km's consisting of 16 satellites. Four of which the spacecraft JIMO plans to navigate Ganymede, Callisto and Europa in the gas and ice neighborhood of our Solar System. Jupiter is giant, its equatorial diameter 11 times our planet comprising almost 70% of the whole solar system as mass and the fastest rotation of any other planet at 9 hours 50 minutes 33 seconds. Powering a spacecraft close around a fast moving giant with an escape velocity of 61 Km/second compared to Earth's 11.2 Km/second requires skill and energy to navigate strong gravitational tides.

The Boeing Company is one of three companies involved in a Phase A contract to study technology options for the reactor, power conversion, electric propulsion and other subsystems of the JIMO spacecraft meant to explore the Jovian icy moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. Planet-sized Europa is believed to have more liquid water protected under this ice than all the oceans on Earth, which could potentially provide an environment hospitable to the development of life. To better understand this exciting possibility, JIMO will be capable of carrying a science payload with greater mass, capability, and power than all previous planetary probes combined.

The company, with headquarters in Chicago, is the leading aerospace company in the world and the United States’ leading exporter. The company has an extensive global reach, including customers in 145 countries, employees in more than 70 countries and operations in 38 U.S. states as well as Canada and Australia.

The Boeing-led engineering team comprises several industry partners, including Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., BWX Technology Inc., Honeywell, Teledyne and General Dynamic Electric Boat. For the past five decades BWXT has supplied nuclear reactors to the U.S. Navy with an unprecedented operational and safety record. And Ball is NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory second-largest contractor, with on-going projects throughout NASA’s Space Science enterprise, including the Deep Impact and Kepler Discovery missions for JPL, extensive hardware subsystems and instruments on the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and major astrophysics spacecraft including the Space Infrared Telescope Facility and the James Webb Space Telescope.

NASA plans to select an industry prime contractor in fall 2004 to work with JPL to develop, launch and operate the spacecraft. 

  Boeing did ISS (International Space Station) power systems 100 kW electrical system, 130 kW thermal heat rejection systems also does future combat systems, future imagery architecture, reactor design and development liquid metal, gas and heat cooled reactor design experience on work performed on space system for Nuclear Auxiliary Power (SNAP-10A), Space nuclear propulsion, multi-megawatt space nuclear power systems, small ex-core heatpipe Thermionics. Developed advanced Power Conversion (PC) System Design and development with its SP-100 Brayton/Stirling PC, System engineering for Segmented Thermoelectric Multicouple Converters, Nuclear Electric Propulsion Brayton.
  On the ionic propulsion engine front, it boasts the NSTAR System, the advanced Xenon gas fueled ion electric system in successful space missions used in transfer Orbit and station keeping operations.
  In order to fit Boeing into this 'new' NASA standard. Outlined in President Bush's vision for U.S. Space Exploration on advanced transportation systems and human and robotic exploration systems that use a management style of, strategy-to-task-to-technology process, and joint rigorous trade study analysis, utilizing modeling and simulation, by operators and technologists.

  At this year’s recent Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF) in Albuquerque, NM, Dr. Joe Mills, Boeing JIMO-vice president, said Boeing has a unique heritage in large-scale space system and payload integration from civil, military and commercial spacecraft and satellite programs.

“Boeing is uniquely positioned to help NASA develop, launch and operate such a spacecraft,” said Mills, “based on the company’s experience with the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle, the Delta IV launch vehicle and the 702 communications satellite, the world’s largest high-power satellite system.”

During the annual STAIF international technical forum, industry, government and institutes of higher education focused on topics of space technology, nuclear power and propulsion and space exploration. Boeing’s nuclear heritage was on display at the conference with the company’s SNAP 10A nuclear reactor system being exhibited. The metal-cool reactor sister system was successfully launched in 1965 and sits indefinitely in deep space; it’s the last metal-cool reactor system to fly in space. The forum promoted international participation and provided a timely exchange of information among technologists, academicians, industrialists and program managers.

Mills, an internationally recognized nuclear engineer who was recently honored with the Black Engineer of the Year Award, was previously vice president of Boeing’s International Space Station Program (ISS), having lead the company as prime integrating contractor for NASA to design, develop, test, launch and operate the orbiting laboratory.

“Boeing has expertise in JIMO critical technologies,” Mills said, “and in order to position itself as the preferred industry team, we partnered with companies that have expertise in reactors and reactor fuels, for example.” The Boeing team also includes several best-in-class suppliers for power conversion, deep space autonomy, nuclear power integration, and structures, as well as key universities and several government laboratories.

Mills said Project Prometheus offers the chance to revolutionize the nature of space exploration. “I’m excited about the exploration of Jupiter’s icy moons and unlocking their secrets. Understanding the conditions for life in our solar system is one of the great adventures of our time.”

While nuclear power remains controversial, in order for the new space vision to be successful the use of nuclear power has to be seriously explored, Mills added. “This technology is a part of America’s new space vision and is key to implementing that vision for future exploration initiatives that NASA is undertaking.”

Within Boeing, the JIMO program is being led by Boeing’s NASA Systems business unit, with support from specialty divisions across the Company, including: Phantom Works, the company’s research and development arm, for initial program trades and concepts; Electron Dynamic Devices Inc., for electric propulsion research; Boeing Satellite Systems for spacecraft engineering, and Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power for power conversion and management technologies.

A CHAT WITH DR. MILLS

  I had a chance to Interview Dr. Mills and Terry Murphy of Boeing at the STAIF 2004 (Space Technology & Applications International Forum) earlier in the year.

  I asked him how Boeing was coming along and what the company hoped to achieve in NASA's future plans with regard to its first mission of a spacecraft propelled and powered by a bona fide fast flux nuclear reactor to explore a distant planetary system?

  He said, very well...How this came about was there was a "Study Contract" award initially of 6 million dollars and the option to exercise another 5 million in the phase A "JIMO" contract and since that's been released we have exercised that option. Those were studies that went out to 3 major aerospace companies: Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Those studies were to look at a range of nuclear reactors, reactor type, power conversion technologies and electrical thrusters. This is technology that's being developed under Project Prometheus and this was mentioned in President Bush's NASA directive being a key part of technologies to be developed to enable them [NASA] to implement the President's vision for future exploration initiatives that NASA is undertaking. So, our Phase A effort was to study concepts, design options, trade studies under contract with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to provide them information and data that would be useful in how you would move this program forward and we have completed the first part of that task. Submitted our final reports. Had several briefings with the customers JPL and shared that information with them. That compliments stuff that's going on with the technology portion of Prometheus which has to do with NRA's (Nuclear Reactor Application), PC's (Power Conversion), Electrical Thrusters of which the Boeing team is involved in several NRA's either as leading teams or as part of teams.

Of course, you mentioned the multimega watt RTG's (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) which is also part of Prometheus but, not for the electric propulsion piece for high powered missions. The first practical demonstration of that will be the 'JIMO Program' to go back to Jupiter and study the Icy moons.

  I asked about Boeing's, acquired Hughes 30cm NSTAR Ion Xenon gas blown grid thruster that has performed successfully in Deep Space for a 1,000 lb spacecraft producing gentle thrust for very long duration on DS 1 spacecraft hauling about 81.5kg of Xenon propellant, which provided over 20 months of continuous thrust to essentially 4.5Km/sec. If this Boeing thruster would play the part in the make-up of thruster pods for the 'JIMO' spacecraft? And on the PC side of the equation, how would Boeing's closed Brayton nuclear electrical propulsion technology fit in a 'JIMO mission' ?

  Terry Murphy of Boeing responded by saying, as Joe said...Prometheus is really divided into three pieces. The RTG and NRA's technologies. Relative to the Brayton we finished our first phase on that contract we're pushing forward, there's still a lot of work to be done but it will look very promising for this type of application. The idea would be to put multiple units on a 'JIMO' and have a fault tolerant approach to it.

  I asked if the Brayton conversion system planned use in 'JIMO', originally an aircraft modified Brayton? He said, NASA has for years had rotating assembles that performed on different levels. We haven't had a unit tested at the power levels that we're talking about here. But, the technology is well understood. For example, you mentioned hundred of thousands of hours of those types of units on aircraft. The question is we need to hook them up into a new type of Brayton system and certify them for space applications.

  I also asked Terry, how confident Boeing felt about their thruster 'married' to their power conversion unit(s)? Very confident, he said, In all these units you have a PMAD (Power Management Distribution) system. In fact Dr. Mills last program was the ISS station were you're dealing with the same type of power levels that we're talking about here 7500 kWe system that's online on orbit. So, Boeing's capability and the general industry's capability for power distribution relative to those types of switching units is well understood.

I asked how reliability faired with repeated number of shutdowns and start-ups that might occur in a 'JIMO' mission?

  Well, I can't give you that for 'JIMO', but I can say on ISS it has exceeded the contract power requirements as far as power availability on the station. Again, you're talking about a large complex system. If you design it right you could build in the right type of 'fault' tolerances to achieve that type of power level availability, he said.

Dr. Mills added, I think the challenge is doing dynamic systems like Brayton. How do you demonstrate that you have the reliability for operating missions of the length that [JIMO] we're talking about? There are several approaches to that.

  As Terry said, you can have several redundant additional units so that in a case there's one or more failures because they run out of 'life' then you can start-up an adjacent unit and you can get to your lifetime and mission reliability that way. Of course, part of the development program would be during this time frame, to test the Brayton to generate as much data as we could on the lifetime performance as part of this certification for space that Terry was talking about. That is sort of what the NRA's are about. To move the technology forward, we understand the closed Brayton data around tailoring it to this application and getting the data necessary to certify the system for space flight.   

I added...You're confident that Boeing will be able to deliver propulsion and current proportional to the platform [JIMO] at least for the 12 years rated on the total 'life' of the reactor ?

Terry responded, well...I believe we can develop a program that would give us that kind of capability...Absolutely.

Dr. Mills added, let's be clear Bruce. You focused on NRA's for Brayton. There are other NRA's for other power conversion technologies; like advanced thermoelectrics and there hasn't been a decision made about which power conversion technology would actually be used or for that matter even which reactor type would be used for the specific power levels we want. Once we get through these Phase A studies. JPL selects their contractor of choice which we hope will be Boeing company, we'll work together with JPL to finalize all those decisions during the Phase B effort and then you would focus the technology and qualifications of the certification program in concert with those decisions and depending on the pace of that technology development that would translate to a specific launch date for 'JIMO'. The dates [mentioned] out there are 2011, the President's directive shows it at 2015, 2016 but NASA has been clear that those launch dates would be predicated on the success and the pace of the technology programs.

I also asked Dr. Mills about Boeing's involvement with Nuclear Thermal Rocket propulsion technology ?

Dr. Mills said, yes...We have a rich heritage that goes back to the sixties when we were involved in the Nuclear Thermal Rocket development at that time before that effort was curtailed in this country. So, we have heritage and capability. We have heritage in all kinds of propulsion systems. We build big power systems, we integrate them into spacecraft that's what we do whether it's the Space Station or Space Shuttle or other programs as part integrating defense systems. Large scale integration we bring capability, experience and heritage and we think we'll be valuable to JPL. Boeing has been NASA's number one contractor. It's our legacy to be the number one player, we intend to continue that legacy and this is part of the exploration program.

So, we plan to play a major role.

  Finally, I asked Dr. Mills if Boeing had a program to train American University students to get students into cooperative programs to work in this field?

He said, we have an ongoing program within the Boeing Company to attract young talented engineers to things we do which would include this field. We send a lot of money to Universities to sponsor research. We have summer intern programs. We have what we think, is the best "Learning Together" program where people once hired into the Boeing program Boeing will pay for their tuition to learn anything they want whether it even relates to their specific assignment or not. The company will reimburse that. We have a world class learning center in Saint Louis which I think is rated number one or two in the world. Our whole emphasis is on learning as a life long learn within the Boeing Company, we are always trying to attract students and we have co-op programs available with Universities.

  That's the reason we think they come to the Boeing company is because we work on exciting programs like this one.

We don't, just work only with NASA there are a lot of other exciting work. As you know, we do a lot of work with the Department of Defense. So students come to us to work on several different programs during their careers.
  In other words, we won't have a difficulty in trying to staff-up to do a program of this magnitude - this is what we do.

As a follow up to my question. I asked where would these Boeing projects locate; would it be Chicago, Seattle, California, etc.?

  He said, Boeing will do what we do best to locate the piece work for instance, Canoga Park, California has a rich heritage in terms of nuclear power systems.The SNAP-10A reactor the last reactor flown in 1965 was done in Canoga Park. Our Boeing Satellite Systems in El Segundo, they would be part of this team. Our EDD Division which does our electric propulsion piece. We have NASA systems engineering software technology in Houston, Texas that worked on the ISS, they will be a part of this.

  So, we'll take the best of Boeing and then we'll get the best of industry to come on our team.
We have Ball Aerospace for Deep Space Exploration. We have BWXT that builds all the reactors for the Navy...They're on our team. We have just gone into a relationship with 'Electric Boat' which builds submarines for the Navy and builds reactors and integrates them, similar to a 'JIMO' which is essentially integrating a reactor into a spacecraft.

We integrate large complex systems that's what we do successfully - we're very excited to provide this service.