Stirling radioisotope generator

A similar NASA project still under development, called Kilopower, also utilizes Stirling engines, but uses a small uranium fission reactor as the heat source.

A later engine of this size, the Component Test Power Converter (CTPC), used a "Starfish" heat-pipe heater head, instead of the pumped-loop used by the SPDE.

In the near-term, a lunar demonstration mission using a dynamic RPS as part of NASA's Artemis Program could be the first opportunity for a DRPS to be used in spaceflight.

The use of DRPS in a lunar-landed payload would enable it to survive and operate productively during the frigidly cold, two-week lunar nights, or in permanently shadowed craters near the moon's poles.

In the early 21st century, a major project using this concept was undertaken: the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG), a power source based on a 55-watt electric converter.