NASA has taken another small step for man.
The space agency is preparing to wrap up the initial phase of the Fission Surface Power Project, which is developing concept designs for creating energy on the Moon. They want to be able to generate power for Moon missions and future designs for Mars.
In 2022, NASA awarded three $5 million contracts, asking commercial partners to develop a design for a reactor. The designs would need to be able to demonstrate power management, distribution, and heat rejection as well as an estimated construction timeline and costs. The big contracts were the first step in hopefully getting humans on the lunar surface but with plans to sustain them for at least 10 years.
Solar power designs will have limitations on the Moon and space, but NASA believes a small nuclear reactor, based in shadowed areas, would be sufficient. They say the water ice on the surface would generate power continuously during lunar nights, which are around 14-and-a-half Earth days long.
NASA left the design to the commerical partners, which they’re hoping to receive the results back soon.
There were some limitations in the project briefs though, with the agency specifying the reactor would need to be under six metric tons and produce 40 kilowatts of electrical power – to sustain lunar habitats, grids, science experiments and rovers.
As a comparison, 40 kW can provide power for 33 homes in the US, on average.
But the team also want the reactor to be self-sufficient, without any human intervention, for at least a decade. The partnerships will need to design how the reactor will be controlled remotely as well.
Currently, NASA plans to extend the first phase of the contracts before moving onto Phase 2. Here, they will design the final reactor for the Moon, believed to start in 2024.
Then, following on from Phase 2, they want to start delivering a reactor to the launch in the early 2030s. NASA estimates it’ll take one year to complete the demonstration, followed by nine operational years.
It comes after NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter based on the Red Planet took its last flight. One of its rotor blades is damaged after a reported emergency landing.
And if it goes well? They’ll have a design to piggyback off of for Mars.
