Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power

The Systems Nuclear Auxiliary POWER (SNAP) program (also "Space Nuclear Auxiliary Power" program) was a program of experimental radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) and space nuclear reactors flown during the 1960s by NASA.

The SNAP program developed as a result of Project Feedback, a RAND Corporation study of reconnaissance satellites completed in 1954. As some of the proposed satellites had high power demands, some as high as a few kilowatts, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) requested a series of nuclear power-plant studies from industry in 1951. Completed in 1952, these studies determined that nuclear power plants were technically feasible for use on satellites.

In 1955, the AEC began two parallel SNAP nuclear power projects. One, contracted with The Martin Company, used radio-isotopic decay as the power source for its generators. These plants were given odd-numbered SNAP designations beginning with SNAP-1. The other project used nuclear reactors to generate energy, and was developed by the Atomics International Division of North American Aviation. Their systems were given even-numbered SNAP designations, the first being SNAP-2.

Most of the systems development and reactor testing was conducted at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, Ventura County, California using a number of specialized facilities.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.