NASA taps three companies to design nuclear power plants for the Moon

Nuclear may have to overcome a public perception hurdle in order to get the funding and development it needs to advance sufficiently to help our de-carbonization efforts, but the mostly empty lunar surface sidesteps a lot of nuclear's image problem. Three suppliers are being contracted by NASA to provide concept designs for nuclear energy systems that will be used on the moon.

There were three winning bids for this award. Each will be working with a few partners to develop their systems, which will be initial concepts only for the purpose of satisfying this particular contract, and each will receive roughly $5 million for their work, expected to take around a year.

NASA is partnering with the Department of Energy on a project that will be capable of generating 40 kilowatts of power for at least 10 years. A full charge on a Nissan Leaf is about the same as a fission generator.

It may not seem like much, but it could be used in groups to support a lunar base, which could solve a lot of the challenges that NASA plans to eventually establish through its Artemis program.

The same challenges we face with other power sources, like solar, are exaggerated by the conditions on the Moon and Mars.

NASA notes that the work done for this contract could be used in the future for other purposes.