Valerie J. Lyons

Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio

Aerospace Power Technology for 

Potential Terrestrial Applications

NASA/TM—2012-217659

November 2012

10.1109/EnergyTech.2012.6304690 
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Valerie J. Lyons

Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio

Aerospace Power Technology for 

Potential Terrestrial Applications

NASA/TM—2012-217659

November 2012

10.1109/EnergyTech.2012.6304690 

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

Glenn Research Center

Cleveland, Ohio 44135

Prepared for the

Energy Tech 2012

sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Cleveland, Ohio, May 29–31, 2012
Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges the contributions of J.H. Scott, B.M.M. Bomani, R. Jansen, and B. Scheidegger.

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Level of Review: This material has been technically reviewed by technical management. 
NASA/TM—2012-217659 1 

Aerospace Power Technology for 

Potential Terrestrial Applications

Valerie J. Lyons

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Glenn Research Center

Cleveland, Ohio 44135

Abstract

Aerospace technology that is being developed for space and 

aeronautical applications has great potential for providing 

technical advances for terrestrial power systems. Some recent 

accomplishments arising from activities being pursued at the 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 

Centers is described in this paper. Possible terrestrial 

applications of the new aerospace technology are also 

discussed.

1.0 Introduction

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s 

(NASA) Lewis/Glenn Research Center has a long, impressive 

history in power generation, energy conversion, energy 

storage and power management and distribution research and 

development for aerospace missions. Power is a very critical 

part of every NASA mission, especially since 20 to 30 percent 

of a spacecraft’s mass is the power system and it can be 

20 percent of the cost. Efforts to reduce the mass and cost of

spacecraft power systems have led to many innovations. Many 

technology benefits from this work have already been 

incorporated into terrestrial systems, and many more are under 

development (Ref. 1). 

2.0 Space Power Technologies

2.1 Power Generation

Power generation for space missions is often from solar 

energy. Much work has been done at NASA to develop highly 

efficient (currently over 30 percent efficient) solar cells for 

missions where solar energy is sufficient for supplying 

mission power. Concentrator solar arrays which focus the 

Sun’s rays onto the active solar cell area enable space 

missions to use solar power farther from the Sun where solar 

intensity is very weak. An example of a concentrator solar 

array for use in space can be seen in Figure 1. While space 

solar cells are very efficient, but very expensive for terrestrial 

use, concentrator technology can benefit terrestrial solar 

power by enabling smaller active areas of solar cells, reducing 

the size of the expensive portion of the solar power system. A 

prototype terrestrial concentrator system (seen in Figure 2) is 

being developed in a collaborative project between NASA 

Glenn and Greenfield Solar of Oberlin, Ohio. NASA engineer, 

Bernard Sater, invented a high temperature solar cell capable 

of operating efficiently using highly concentrated sunlight and 

when combined with a Sun-tracking concentrator, produces an 

inexpensive, clean source of electricity and is now being 

installed in prototype ground power generation sites (Ref. 2). 

For deep space missions and applications where there is not 

enough solar energy, NASA uses nuclear power. One nuclear 

space power system converts heat generated from nuclear fuel 

to electricity using Advanced Stirling Radioisotope 

Generators, which are being developed at NASA Glenn 

Research Center in collaboration with the Department of 

Energy. Technology to enable space fission reactor systems is 

also being developed and studied for future application to high 

power missions.

Power generation technology developed at NASA has not 

been limited to space systems. In the past, NASA Lewis 

pioneered the development of wind turbines, producing the 

first mega-watt class wind turbines that were the foundation 

for today’s large terrestrial wind farms. NASA’s solar array 

technology was also used in the 1970s to power remote 

villages in 58 countries around the world.

2.2 Energy Conversion 

Space systems produce power by converting heat energy 

(e.g., solar, chemical, or nuclear) into electricity. A recent 

success story is the development, in collaboration with 

SunPower of Athens, Ohio, of an Advanced Stirling 

Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) for use in space power 

systems, which is a factor of four times more efficient than 

previous thermal energy conversion systems, enabling a 

greatly reduced requirement for space nuclear fuel (the rare 

Plutonium 238) for deep space missions (Refs. 3 and 4). At the 

heart of the ASRG is the free piston Stirling convertor 

pictured in Figure 3 where it is being performance tested at 

Glenn Research center.

This technology has great potential for terrestrial 

applications where a more efficient method for producing 

electricity from heat sources would have great benefits. One 

new product is a combined heat and power system which uses 

heat from a gas furnace to provide heat to a Stirling convertor, 

which would then produce electricity.
NASA/TM—2012-217659 2 

 

Figure 1.—Concentrator solar array preparing 

for installation on a spacecraft. 

Figure 2.—Greenfield Solar concentrator system using 

innovative, proprietary high temperature solar cells to 

generate electricity. 

Figure 3.—Two free-piston Stirling convertors on test at 

the NASA Glenn Research Center. 

2.3 Energy Storage 

Space power systems rely on many forms of energy storage 

devices. Batteries are critical to many applications from 

spacecraft and rovers to astronaut hand tools. While great

strides are being made in the terrestrial community to improve 

energy density by investigating new battery chemistries and 

improved materials, NASA is working to assure safe and 

reliable batteries are developed for space missions. NASA is 

developing High Energy (HE) and Ultra High Energy (UHE) 

advanced lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells with the goals of attaining 

specific energies of 180 and 260 Wh/kg, respectively, when 

measured at C/10 (a discharge rate of 10 hr) and 10 °C, in 

cells that are inherently safe. The HE cell goals are being 

addressed through the development of advanced cathode 

components, flame retardant electrolytes, safety devices, and 

optimized cell designs. The newly developed components will 

be combined with a commercial graphite anode that can 

achieve a specific capacity of 330 mAh/g at C/10 and 0 °C and 

a commercial battery-grade separator to comprise the HE cell 

design. The UHE cell goals will be achieved through the 

development of advanced anodes and combining them with 

the cathode, safety device, and separator utilized in the HE 

cell. A flame retardant electrolyte specially formulated to be 

compatible with the advanced anode will be used in the UHE 

cell design. Background information on the cell chemistries, 

their components, and cell designs are documented in papers 

by Reid and Bennett and by Reid (Ref. 5 and 6). 

Fuel cells, which were originally developed for NASA’s 

Project Gemini, can be considered both a power generation 

device and a method of energy storage (in the form of the 

chemical energy storage in the fuel cell’s “fuel tank”). NASA 

has continued to support the development of fuel cell 

technology over many decades, following a defined roadmap 

that consistently focuses on the requirements most important 

to aerospace applications. As a means of minimizing the 

investment required, NASA tries to use technology already

developed for commercial applications. However, since the 

human space flight program offered the first truly economical

and very advantageous application of fuel cells, NASA, at the 

time, found little commercial work upon which to build. 

However, in the mid-1990s, interest in “Green Energy” and 

“The Hydrogen Economy” led to an enormous increase in 

investment in fuel cell development, at a level dwarfing that of 

NASA by a good two orders of magnitude. As much of this 

commercial investment is focused on the proton exchange 

membrane (PEM) or “hydrogen” fuel cell, one might presume 

that NASA could, certainly after 10 years of this massive 

program, find the power plants we need off the shelf. This is 

completely untrue. The differences in requirements between 

the human spaceflight program and almost all commercial 

applications, including cars, drive fundamental design 

differences down even to the level of the catalyst lay-up in the 

membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) (Ref. 7). So, NASA 

has continued to use and improve fuel cells for their aerospace 
NASA/TM—2012-217659 3 

needs and most recently (2011) won an R&D 100 award for an 

innovative non-flow-through fuel cell which greatly reduces 

the size, while tripling the power output, of a proton exchange 

membrane (PEM) fuel cell system (Ref. 8). These improved 

aerospace fuel cell systems have some features (such as the 

award-winning patented balance of plant design) that can be 

advantageous to terrestrial applications (Ref. 9). 

Solid oxide fuel cells, which require high temperature 

operation, are also of interest in applications where hydrogen 

and oxygen may not be available, or other fuel choices are the 

best for the application. Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) have 

potential for a number of industrial and NASA applications, 

because of their high energy efficiency. NASA applications 

for SOFCs include auxiliary power units for commercial 

airlines, power sources for high-altitude drones, and reversible 

fuel cells to electrolyze water and generate power for lunar 

satellites and space stations and to electrolyze carbon dioxide 

to produce oxygen for a Mars mission. A key advantage of 

SOFCs is that they can be sulfur tolerant, so they can operate 

on any hydrocarbon fuel, most of which contain some level of 

sulfur. The higher the temperature, the greater is the efficiency 

and power output of a fuel cell. SOFCs have the potential to 

operate at high temperatures, from 600 to 1000 °C. However, 

the majority of industrial SOFC designs contain a metal 

interconnect between the ceramic cells that limits the 

operating temperatures to 600 to 700 °C. Operation at low 

temperature makes it more difficult for conventional SOFCs to 

meet the high specific power density (kilowatts per kilogram) 

requirements of NASA and industry applications. For 

example, a Boeing study sponsored by the NASA Glenn 

Research Center determined that a commercial jet auxiliary 

power unit requires an SOFC specific power density of 

1.0 kW/kg. Present state-of-the-art SOFC developers are 

struggling to attain power densities of 0.1 kW/kg. An order-ofmagnitude improvement in performance must be achieved. 

NASA Glenn has developed a novel fuel cell and fuel cell 

stack design that is ideally suited to high temperatures and can 

achieve the high specific power densities required for 

aeronautics applications. Glenn has developed both a novel 

cell design and a novel ceramic fabrication technique that has 

a predicted specific power density of 1.0 kW/kg. This design 

is called a bielectrode-supported cell (BSC) (Ref. 10). It has 

both low volume and low weight. The BSC uses a thin 

ceramic interconnect rather than a metal interconnect, which 

makes it ideally suited to operate at high temperatures, in the 

800 to 1000 °C range. Higher operating temperatures allow 

the BSC to take advantage of higher power density and higher 

efficiency, and thus make it suited for reversibility 

applications, such as water and carbon dioxide electrolysis, 

and for sulfur tolerance.

One other aspect of the Glenn design that is critical for 

many NASA applications is that fully hermetic seals can be 

fabricated. Because the BSC all-ceramic design allows 

multiple cells, with seals, to be built into a stack using low 

temperature assembly techniques, followed by a hightemperature sintering of the ceramic stack and seals, the 

Figure 4.—Cross section of a flywheel which uses an 

advanced composite rotor and magnetic bearings to 

safely achieve high rotation speeds (60,000 rpm) for 

high energy density storage capability. 

product is a hermetic stack that can be leak tested prior to its 

application. No other design has this advantageous feature. 

Previous SOFC technology that was evaluated for NASA

lunar and Mars missions failed because of leaking seals. We 

believe that Glenn’s technology can be developed to deliver a 

stack with hermetic seals (Ref. 10). 

Another promising energy storage technology is flywheels.

Researchers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in 

Cleveland—in collaboration with several other organizations, 

including Northrup Grumman Space Technologies, University 

of Texas Center for Electromechanisms, Texas A&M 

University, University of Toledo and Lockheed Martin—have 

developed flywheel energy storage systems (pictured in 

Figure 4) using composite rotors that operate at 60,000 rpm, 

which works out to nearly 2.5 times the speed of sound (Ref. 

11). NASA Glenn Research Center has specialized in 

magnetically suspended flywheels which do not have 

mechanical friction or wear mechanisms. The combination of 

high strength composite wheels with magnetic suspension 

enables high specific energy with long life and low sensitivity 

to environmental temperature variation. These features make 

them an ideal candidate for replacing rechargeable chemical 

batteries on future spacecraft. Flywheels are especially 

beneficial for spacecraft since they provide not only energy 

storage, but also spacecraft attitude control—replacing the 

momentum wheel system and saving mass. Flywheel specific 

energy is limited by the strength/density ratio of the rotor 

material derated for safety and life. The effective system 

specific energy is reduced by the mass of the motor/generator, 

power electronics and other supporting components. Flywheel 
NASA/TM—2012-217659 4 

specific energy and specific power improve as the system gets 

larger. Small flywheel systems (1 to 2 kW-hr) using carbon 

fiber materials usually have a system (all components required 

to provide a regulated DC power output) specific energy in the 

range of 35 to 75 W-hr/kg. New rotor materials are being 

developed incorporating nanotubes to improve the baseline 

strength and fatigue strength. Carbon nanotubes can have 

strengths as high as 200 GPa, compared to presently used 

carbon fiber which has a strength of up to 6 GPa. Currently 

nanotube fibers a few inches long with these mechanical 

properties have been produced, so we are many years away 

from realizing these strengths at the production levels required 

to build a flywheel rotor and developing the supporting 

components to work with such a high energy flywheel. 

The potential specific energy for highly advanced flywheels 

using carbon nanotube fibers being developed is beyond 

1000 W-hr/kg. 

2.4 Power System Architecture and 

Engineering

NASA is currently designing power systems for the next 

generation of spacecraft, rovers, launch systems and other 

space applications. System integration, power quality

specification development, performance modeling and test bed 

development for a 120-V system architecture is underway.

Currently, electrical power on spacecraft is distributed by 

direct current (DC) at fixed voltages ranging from 28 V DC to 

120 V DC. The International Space Station (ISS), pictured in 

Figure 5, is powered by solar arrays and is unique with its 

120 V DC distribution architecture (Ref. 12).

 

Figure 5.—International Space Station solar arrays all together 

are nearly the size of a football field, powering the largest 

space power system ever flown in space.

As NASA’s science and human exploration missions of the 

future are examined, the need for significant increases in 

electrical power on spacecraft becomes clear. With these 

higher power levels, an extrapolation of the current 

technologies for power management and distribution (PMAD) 

would result in unacceptably high mass and complexity. 

PMAD on a space system uses copper cables and connectors.

As higher power systems are developed, higher voltage 

distribution will be required to avoid very heavy wire bundles. 

This can be done with either DC or AC architectures. 

Paschen’s law limits high-voltage DC systems to a maximum 

of about 270 V DC. Therefore, high power levels will require 

more attention to AC systems, probably at relatively high 

frequencies. The demand for lower mass will challenge the 

traditional copper materials for the bus, and the need to 

operate at higher temperatures (to increase the efficiency of 

the thermal management systems as well as electronics 

efficiencies) will conflict with the need to reduce ohmic losses 

in transmission lines. With DC currents, to reduce the mass 

penalty of larger cables, alternate materials such as 

superconductors or nano-material conductors may need to be 

developed, along with lighter space-qualified insulating 

materials capable of protecting systems at high voltage. With 

AC power systems, advancing beyond the 116 V AC system 

in the space shuttle may require very high operating 

frequencies; for example, NASA funded development of a 

440 V, 20 kHz AC power system for Space Station Freedom 

until it was reconfigured to use a DC power system (Ref. 13). 

Technical needs include keeping transmission losses to a 

minimum, reducing transformer masses, incorporating fault 

protection and smart telemetry into power distribution 

architectures, and developing new connectors. 

The nature of future missions will dictate the architecture 

and technologies used for vehicle power systems, and that, in 

turn will define the requirements for the PMAD system. For 

example, the electrical power from a nuclear reactorturboalternator system will likely be high-voltage AC, while 

power from photovoltaics is always generated as a DC

voltage. If electric thrusters are needed for the mission, veryhigh-voltage DC power (kilovolts) will be required, perhaps 

from a nuclear prime-power source.

The voltage and current of electrical power available on any 

particular spacecraft will be dictated by the power source and 

the power management and distribution architecture. Various 

payloads will then most likely require the power in a different 

form, such as higher voltage for electric propulsion. The 

purpose of electrical power conversion and regulation is 

therefore to provide the necessary bridge between the power 

source and payloads, and to regulate this power to within the 

tolerances required by the payloads. In order to take advantage 

of recent advances in non-aerospace power technology, NASA 

will need to (1) space qualify existing terrestrial high-voltage 

components and (2) replace space qualified components that 
NASA/TM—2012-217659 5 

currently lag significantly behind the commercial state of the 

art. Important parameters for improving power conversion and 

regulation devices include increasing conversion efficiency, 

operating temperature range, and radiation tolerance. The need 

for high-voltage regulation is also associated with some 

electric propulsion technologies that require high voltages 

(kilovolts) to function. Development of high-voltage 

regulation capabilities would require a major project that 

includes the development of many new technologies and 

facilities. An example of advanced conversion and regulation 

technology is a higher band gap material such as siliconcarbide or gallium-nitride that would replace the traditional 

silicon materials in switching components, thereby increasing 

device operating temperature and efficiency while decreasing 

mass and volume. Another example is advanced magnetics for 

improved conversion and regulation devices. NASA is 

currently developing power convertors, switchgear, and 

modular hardware systems for fully autonomous power 

management and distribution systems. Some goals include 

producing 300 to 400 W/kg power converters at 1 kW power 

levels; solid state and hybrid switchgear capable of operating 

up to 600 V; reconfigurable modular hardware and “smart” 

electronics (Ref. 12). The development of these technologies 

could also enable more efficient future terrestrial smart grid 

power systems.

2.5 “Green” Technologies 

A power system demonstration is being studied which 

would provide a test bed for advanced power technologies at 

NASA Glenn. A “smart grid” demonstration would include 

solar arrays, fuel cells, wind turbines, flywheel and battery 

energy storage systems, and Stirling convertors connected 

with innovative power management and distribution 

technology. This system could be used to study technology 

advances for use in both space and terrestrial power systems. 

The heart of the smart grid demonstration is a GreenLab 

Research Facility pictured in Figure 6 (Ref. 14) which is 

envisioned to be a self-sustainable renewable energy 

ecosystem focusing on global food, fuel, water, and energy 

shortages and solutions (Ref. 15). Researchers at NASA Glenn 

are studying halophytes (salt-loving plants) to determine their 

growth characteristics in various environments that vary in 

local water salt-content. The facility has salt-water tanks that 

simulate the Floridian coast, for example, and experiments are 

performed to determine the capability for halophytic plants to 

flourish in that environment. These plants can be used for 

food, bio-fuel, or land protection to prevent soil run-off and 

erosion problems (Ref. 16). The facility itself has grow-lights 

partially powered by wind turbines and will soon be connected 

to a field of solar panels nearby (panels previously used in the 

1970s to develop the solar power system for the International 

Space Station). In the past few years, NASA had a project to 

study the halophytes as a feedstock to make prototype 

Figure 6.—Salt-water tanks with varying degrees of salinity 

provide simulated environments to grow halophytes for 

research purposes in NASA Glenn’s renewably-powered 

GreenLab Facility.

bio-fuels since they have high lipid content and are good 

candidates for producing high quality aviation fuels (Ref. 17). 

NASA is working with some industry partners to produce a 

home power unit fueled by natural gas to produce electricity 

and use the excess heat for domestic hot water and home 

heating. The NASA Glenn will provide the expertise for

developing the Stirling power convertor which is the 

centerpiece of the unit. The design is based on a Stirling

Duplex concept that was developed to provide power and 

cooling on the surface of Venus. The new patent-pending 

technology has no moving parts and is predicted to provide 

high efficiency. 

Another green energy project which NASA is currently 

supporting is the installation of Ohio’s first electrolysis-based 

hydrogen fueling station. Previous financial support came 

from the Cleveland Foundation for this project which seeks to 

establish a fueling station at a Cleveland Regional Transit 

Authority site which will be used to fuel a fuel-cell powered 

bus to be used in a revenue-generating route in 2012 (Ref. 18). 

References

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Contributions to Energy Technology”, AIAA-2008-

5641, NASA/TM—2008-215447, presented at the 6th

International Energy Conversion Engineering 

Conference, Jul. 2008.

2. M. Eskenazi, S. White, B. Spence, M. Douglas, M. 

Glick, A. Pavlick, D. Murphy, M. O’Neill, A.J. 

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Biography 

Valerie Lyons (AIAA Associate Fellow) 

graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic 

Institute, Troy, New York, with a BS in 

Aeronautical Engineering, MS Aerospace 

Engineering from the University of 

Michigan and a Ph.D. in Mechanical 

Engineering from the University of 

California- Berkeley.

She has worked at NASA’s Lewis/Glenn Research Center 

for over 35 years. She is currently the Chief of the Power and 

In-Space Propulsion Division where she leads the research and 

development of advanced space power and propulsion 

systems. Her past research in combustion science and laser 

diagnostics led to the reduction of gas turbine combustor 

emissions for aircraft. Dr. Lyons has been selected as a 

Cleveland Crain’s Business “Woman of Note” and has been 

inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame for her 

contributions to NASA and the community.

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6. AUTHOR(S)

Lyons, Valerie, J. 

5d. PROJECT NUMBER

5e. TASK NUMBER

5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER

WBS 432938.11.01.03.02.02.17 

7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field 

Cleveland, Ohio 44135-3191 

8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION

 REPORT NUMBER

E-18336 

9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

Washington, DC 20546-0001 

10. SPONSORING/MONITOR'S

 ACRONYM(S)

NASA 

11. SPONSORING/MONITORING

 REPORT NUMBER

NASA/TM-2012-217659 

12. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Unclassified-Unlimited 

Subject Categories: 44, 85, and 99 

Available electronically at http://www.sti.nasa.gov 

This publication is available from the NASA Center for AeroSpace Information, 443-757-5802

13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

14. ABSTRACT

Aerospace technology that is being developed for space and aeronautical applications has great potential for providing technical advances 

for terrestrial power systems. Some recent accomplishments arising from activities being pursued at the National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration (NASA) Centers is described in this paper. Possible terrestrial applications of the new aerospace technology are also 

discussed. 

15. SUBJECT TERMS

Energy; Power technology; Space power; Terrestrial energy; Alternative energy 

16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF

 ABSTRACT

UU 

18. NUMBER

 OF 

 PAGES

14 

19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON

STI Help Desk (email:help@sti.nasa.gov) 

a. REPORT

U 

b. ABSTRACT

U 

c. THIS 

PAGE

U 

19b. TELEPHONE NUMBER (include area code)

443-757-5802 

Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8-98)

Prescribed by ANSI Std. Z39-18