NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy reaffirmed their joint project to develop nuclear fission reactors for the lunar surface.
According to an announcement from the space agency, the two agencies hope to complete the development phase of the facility by 2030, which may include testing on Earth. The reactor is designed to provide continuous power for planned missions to the lunar surface for many years, eliminating the need for constant refueling from Earth.
“This agreement enables NASA and the Department of Energy to work more closely together to deliver the capabilities necessary to launch a golden age of space exploration and discovery,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
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Their work is done. Building a safe and reliable nuclear reactor on Earth is challenging enough. Moon is a completely different ball game. Its environmental conditions pose huge problems for fission reactor design, the biggest of which is the management of waste heat.
On Earth, reactor cooling towers use water to release excess energy into the atmosphere in the form of steam. However, fluids behave differently in low gravity and low pressure conditions; the Moon is near a vacuum and has no real rotating atmosphere to help dissipate heat.
Possible solutions include solid conduction and liquid metal coolants, but each adds complexity to the design.
The moon is also covered in dust. It doesn’t have global dust storms like Mars, but the dust on the moon is abrasive and can be electrostatically charged by solar radiation. it persists everythingwhich means that any machinery used on the moon must be carefully designed to avoid contaminating the project with lunar dust.
Not to mention the radiation shielding would need to be strong enough to protect any lunar explorers working nearby. All of these need to be strong enough so that maintenance and repairs can be kept to a minimum.
Scientists have been working on these technical problems for years, so NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy are not starting from scratch.
Current plans include the design and development of a reactor capable of providing at least 40 kilowatts of electricity, enough to operate approximately 30 homes continuously for 10 years. But there is currently no firm timeline for when such a system might actually be deployed on the moon.
The preliminary design phase has been completed. However, turning that design into flyable hardware is bound to be a slow process, with funding and regulatory implications as much as engineering.
Fission reactors on the moon would be an incredible resource for space exploration. However, this new announcement suggests that this remains a long-term aspiration rather than an imminent reality.
