Generation
How power is made beyond Earth. Solar arrays, space nuclear power, fission surface power, radioisotope systems, and ideas still on the drawing board.
The generation landscape
Every spacecraft, habitat, and rover needs electrical power, and the source of that power is the first design decision. In Earth orbit, sunlight is abundant and solar photovoltaic arrays dominate. Farther from the Sun, at Jupiter and beyond, solar intensity drops as the inverse square of distance, and radioisotope thermoelectric generators become the practical choice. On the lunar surface, the two-week night forces a choice between massive energy storage paired with solar, or a fission reactor that runs continuously. For megawatt-class propulsion missions to Mars, nuclear electric propulsion couples a fission reactor to electric thrusters, trading propellant mass for power system mass.
The daily analysis stream covers new research across all generation technologies. The articles below trace the key design trades: Stirling versus Brayton conversion for fission surface power, thermoelectric versus dynamic conversion for radioisotope systems, flexible roll-out solar arrays versus rigid panels, and the technology readiness levels that separate concept from hardware from flight heritage.