Status of Current Aerojet Rocketdyne RPS Programs

Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies Company, has supported numerous Radioisotope Power System (RPS) contracts over the last two decades. The current status of the following RPS programs will be discussed, MMRTG, Next Gen RTG, DRPS, and the Skutterudite Technology Maturation Program. The MMRTG has been involved in two missions and will be utilized during the upcoming Dragonfly mission. The Next Gen RTG contract is to develop a deep space power system nearly identical to the GPHS-RTG that was previously flown on NASA missions. The program is currently in the middle of the re-establishment of the heritage processes with significant progress being made with respect to the unicouple development. The DRPS contract was to develop higher efficiency technologies such as Stirling technologies and utilize them for a power system on a lunar demonstration mission. The DRPS design showed the potential for a nearly 20% thermal to electric efficiency. The Skutterudite Technology Maturation (STM) program is to develop, manufacture and test higher performing thermoelectrics that could be utilized in a radioisotope thermoelectric power system. The Skutterudite program shows the potential for a higher initial and end of life power for future systems. These various systems are at different stages of development and show the breadth of technologies and systems that Aerojet Rocketdyne is developing for the space industry.