NASA is moving forward with its plans to install a nuclear reactor on the Moon to support “an eventual human colony” and power lunar bases for its Artemis program.
The space agency is expanding three $5 million contracts awarded in 2022 to develop a small nuclear fission reactor to generate electricity, officials said in a Jan. 31 news release.
NASA plans to apply for a final reactor design in 2025, which it hopes will be operational for a one-year demonstration in the early 2030s, followed by nine operational years in which it could provide electricity for a “sustained human presence.” ” on earth. Moon.
If that goes well, the reactor could be upgraded for potential use on Mars, where NASA hopes to send astronauts in the next decade, scientists say.
The technology is necessary due to the limitations of solar energy on the celestial body, which has nights equivalent to 14.5 days on Earth.
“The lunar night is challenging from a technical perspective, so having a power source like this nuclear reactor, which operates independently of the Sun, is an option that enables long-term exploration and scientific efforts on the Moon,” Trudy Kortes said. , director of the Technology Demonstration Missions program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
A NASA representation of a possible lunar nuclear reactor, which would have the task of supporting “an eventual human colony.” POT
Under the first continuing phase of the Fission Surface Energy Project, Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse and IX are tasked with creating initial designs that include a reactor and its energy conversion, heat rejection, and fuel management and distribution systems. energy.
“A demonstration of a nuclear power source on the Moon is required to demonstrate that it is a safe, clean and reliable option,” Kortes said.
The reactors would have to weigh less than six metric tons and produce 40 kilowatts of power, enough to power about 30 homes on Earth.
NASA is wrapping up the initial phase of its Surface Fission Power Project, which focused on developing conceptual designs for the reactor. POT
“We’re getting a lot of information from all three partners,” said Lindsay Kaldon, director of the Fission Surface Power project at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
“We will have to take some time to process everything and see what makes sense to move to Phase 2 and make the best of Phase 1 to establish requirements to design a lower risk system in the future.”
NASA’s Artemis missions aim, over the next few years, to establish the first long-term human presence on the Moon to collect information that will be used to send humans to Mars.
Astronauts have not been to the Moon since 1972, three years after the historic first Apollo 11 mission.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn