大功率空间核电推进系统是空间核电源技术和大功率电推进技术的高度融合，具有高能量密度、超高比冲、较大推力的优势，可适用于超大型航天器轨道转移任务、远距离无人深空探测任务、载人火星等大型深空探测任务，能够极大地拓展人类深空探测的能力。本文针对大功率空间核电推进技术，对其工作原理和系统组成进行了介绍，同时开展了关键技术梳理，重点归纳了国内外在技术领域的研究历程和最新进展。

High power nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) highly integrates space nuclear reactor and high power electric propulsion technologies, with the advantages of high power density, very high specific impulse and high thrust, which can be applied for large interplanetary missions, such as orbital transfer task of super large spacecraft, robotic interplanetary missions and manned Mars exploration, greatly enhancing human ability in deep space exploration. This paper presents the principle and system configuration of high power NEP system, and summarizes the progress of several critical techniques. Moreover, both research process and recent development in worldwide are also outlined.

V439

（1）大功率离子推力器领域。美国开发了核电氙离子系统（NEXIS）和大功率离子推力器（HiPEP），NEXIS（如图10所示）采用了碳碳栅极、石墨触持极、新型空心阴极等先进技术，大幅提高性能。27kWe功率下的性能为：比冲8700s，效率78%，推力517mN。HiPEP（如图11所示）采用矩形栅极以提高电推力器的功率和比冲。40kWe功率下的性能为：比冲9620s，效率80%，推力670mN。意大利Alta公司和英国南安普敦大学联合完成了HiPER DS3G栅极离子推力器的研制，主要参数为：功率25kWe，推力0.45N，比冲10000s，效率84%，阴极直径5mm^{[<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="R47">47</xref>,<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="R48">48</xref>]}。