Further Reading: Power Systems

Spacecraft power sits at the intersection of physics (photovoltaics, radioactive decay, heat engines) and systems engineering (budgets, margins, mass). The sources below are Tier 1 (canonical works we are confident exist) or Tier 2 (a real, named resource whose exact edition or URL we do not pin down here).

Core textbook treatments

Wertz, Everett & Puschell, Space Mission Engineering: The New SMAD, chapter on power subsystems. The systems-engineering bible, and the direct source of this chapter's sizing method — the required-array-power formula, the path efficiencies $X_d$ and $X_e$, and the end-of-life/worst-case discipline. If you build one power budget from one book, build it from SMAD. Tier 1.

Fortescue, Swinerd & Stark, Spacecraft Systems Engineering (Wiley). An excellent, readable treatment of every spacecraft subsystem, with a power chapter that covers solar arrays, batteries, and power management at exactly this book's level. A gentler companion to SMAD. Tier 1.

Patel, Spacecraft Power Systems (CRC Press). A whole book on just this subsystem — solar arrays, batteries, RTGs, and distribution in depth. The reference to reach for when you need the details this chapter compresses. Tier 2 — a real, well-regarded specialist text.

On radioisotope and fission power

NASA Radioisotope Power Systems program pages (online). NASA's official pages on RTGs, the MMRTG, and the plutonium-238 supply, with clear explanations of how a thermoelectric generator works and why Pu-238 is used. The place to verify the numbers in §25.4. Tier 2 — a real, long-running NASA resource; find the current URL by searching the title.

NASA / DOE reports on the Kilopower project and the 2018 KRUSTY test. The primary record of the compact fission reactor of §25.5 — its design, the desert test, and the surface-power plans it enables. Search "Kilopower KRUSTY 2018." Tier 2 — real NASA/DOE technical material.

Primary and mission sources

NASA mission pages for Juno, Voyager, Curiosity/Perseverance, and Dragonfly. Each documents its power system: Juno's solar arrays at Jupiter (Case Study 1), the Voyagers' still-running RTGs, and the MMRTGs on the Mars rovers and on Titan-bound Dragonfly. Good for checking the Tier-2 vehicle numbers used here against the missions themselves. Tier 2.

Watch and play

Scott Manley, YouTube — videos on RTGs, spacecraft power, and how deep-space probes stay alive. Clear, expert explanations that pair well with §§25.4–25.5. Tier 2.

Kerbal Space Program — the electric-charge system, solar panels, and RTGs. KSP models fading solar panels, night-side brownouts, and RTGs directly; building a probe that survives the dark side is this chapter's §25.2–25.3 made tangible. Tier 2 — a commercial game.

Suggested order

1. Reread this chapter's §25.1–25.2, then work one array-sizing problem in SMAD or Fortescue to see the full engineering version of the method.
2. Skim the NASA Radioisotope Power Systems pages to put faces on the RTG numbers, then read a Kilopower/KRUSTY summary for where high-power space nuclear is heading.
3. Read a Juno mission page alongside Case Study 1, then, if you have KSP, fly a probe into a long eclipse and watch the battery gauge — then reread §25.3.