NASA wants to build nuclear power plants on the Moon

NASA wants to turn to nuclear power to power future lunar bases. The space agency has awarded $15 million in contracts for three designs of 40 kW nuclear fission reactors to be tested on the lunar surface before 2030.

If NASA is to achieve its goal of a permanent human presence on the Moon and a manned mission to Mars, energy supply is a critical issue.

During the space race of the 1960s, missions were so short that spacecraft relied on batteries and fuel cells. while modern manned spacecraft can get by with solar panels.

Unfortunately, none of these energy sources is suitable for a mission on the lunar or Martian surface, which should support the work of astronauts, scientific bases and machines.

The problem with setting up a lunar base is that getting equipment to the lunar surface is extremely expensive, with an estimated cost of $100,000 a pound. Even worse, the base would have to withstand 14 days of sunlight at 120°C and 14 days of night at -130°C.

These and other limitations make a very compact power source, relatively light and using extremely high energy density fuel, the most practical option.

The concept is not new. Nuclear energy has been used in space since the 1960s. The USSR even placed entire reactors in near-Earth orbit to power radar satellites, and the Apollo missions left sets of instruments powered by radioactive isotopes on the Moon.

The Artemis program requires a much more advanced nuclear system.modular, scalable and can last up to ten years.

It would be especially useful if these future small reactors could run on nuclear fuel other than plutonium.due to serious supply problems for its production for space missions.

The purpose of the Phase I contracts is to obtain information for a demonstrator that will serve as the basis for the construction of production reactors for the Moon and Mars. In addition, this technology will be used to improve the design of nuclear missiles for future use.