Extraterrestrial power stations will emerge from sci-fi mythos and into reality with the placement of a nuclear generator on the moon by 2030, according to NASA.
The Department of Energy, working with NASA on the project, opened design submissions earlier this month to outside contractors to build a “fission surface power station” on the moon that will eventually help fuel missions to Mars and beyond.
“The feedback and enthusiasm we continue to see for space nuclear power systems has been very exciting, and understandably so,” said Sebastian Corbisiero, the Fission Surface Power Project lead at the Idaho National Laboratory, in a statement. “Providing a reliable, high-power system on the moon is a vital next step in human space exploration, and achieving it is within our grasp.”
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The agencies are looking to build a “durable, high-power, sun-independent power source for NASA missions on the moon by the end of the decade, as well as potential subsequent missions” and want submission for the “initial design system” by Feb. 19.
The reactors, which need to be lightweight and small enough to fit into a rocket, will be assembled and tested on Earth and then dropped into place on the moon. They will cover the need for energy in space in areas where solar power can be unreliable.
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When the lab first requested companies to express interest in the project in 2020, 22 responded with written proposals.
This is not the beginning of nuclear power in space. The 1969 Apollo 12 mission was the first time nuclear power was used on the moon, and every mission to space uses radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which are nuclear batteries.
