Energy Conversion for Space Power; A Selection of Technical Papers based mainly on A Symposium of the American Rocket Society held at Santa Monica, California September 27-30, 1960

xvi, 779, [1] pages. Institutional stamp on fep. The usual ex-library markings. Illustrations. References. Some cover wear. The Editor was with the Institute for Defense Analyses. This is Progress in Astronautics and Rocketry --Volume 3, An American Rocket Society Series. Two ideas critical to the birth of the Institute for Defense Analyses came from WWII. The first was the necessity for unifying the several services into a single, coordinated department. The second was the realization of the strength of the relationship between science and national security. The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) is an American non-profit corporation that administers three federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) - the Systems and Analyses Center (SAC), the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI), and the Center for Communications and Computing (C&C) - to help the United States government in address national security issues, particularly scientific and technical issues. This volume begins with a discussion of the physics involved in the energy conversion process. Several new findings are discussed involving the rare earth sulfides of cerium, samarium, and thorium, and the silicides. Work on nuclear radiation effects in particularly interesting. One paper discusses thermoelectric materials for space cooling. The section on thermionics reveals a sharp increase in understanding of the physical processes and materials problems. The keynote address highlighted the importance of materials work for thermionic devices. Fuel element research was understood to be key to success if nuclear reactor-thermionic systems were to be feasible. There is a section on photovoltaic cells/solar cells. Most of the section on the electrochemical cells deal with fuel cells. Additionally, there is information on space power needs and magnetohydrodynamics.…