Several space agencies and their commercial partners intend to send people to the Moon and Mars in the next fifteen years. There are plans to establish the infrastructure to allow for a long-term human presence. Several technologies are being researched and developed to meet the mission requirements.
These technologies are all about self-sufficiency in terms of resources, materials, and energy. NASA is working on a Fission Surface Power system that will provide a safe, efficient, and reliable electricity supply to ensure that these missions have all the energy they need to conduct operations. This technology will allow for long-term missions to the Moon and Mars in the future.
The Artemis Program aims to create a program of sustained lunar exploration, and having a reactor for lunar surface operations is a vital part of that. The infrastructure is needed, like the Artemis Base Camp on the surface, where astronauts will eat, exercise, and sleep when not conducting extravehicular activities.
An artist's impression of a reactor on the moon. Credit: Caltech.
This base will need a lot of electricity so astronauts can use the moon's natural resources to make things. Jim Reuter is the associate administrator for NASA and he is in charge of funding the fission surface power project.
He said in a NASA press release thattiful energy will be key to future space exploration. I expect the use of surface power systems to benefit our plans for power architectures for the Moon and Mars. The concept builds on NASA's Kilopower project, an effort to create a small, lightweight fission system that could provide up to 10 kilowatts of power continuously for at least ten years.
The project was completed in March of last year. The prototype consisted of a solid, cast uranium-235 reactor core and passive sodium heat pipes that transferred the heat generated by slow fission reactions to high-efficiency Stirling engines, which convert the heat to electricity.
The FSP for the Artemis Program is being developed by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy through the Idaho National Laboratory. A prototype reactor will be sent to the moon to be tested under lunar conditions in the early 2030s.
The artist has a concept of a surface power system on Mars. Credit: NASA.
Todd Tofil is the FSP Project Manager at NASA.
This important and challenging development will be an incredible step towards long-term human exploration of the Moon and Mars. We will use the unique capabilities of the government and private industry to provide reliable, continuous power that is independent of the lunar location.
NASA and the DoE issued a solicitation to American companies for design concepts for a fission power system that could be ready to launch within a decade for a demonstration on the Moon. The FSP should include a reactor core, a power conversion system, a thermal management system, and a power management and distribution system that can provide 40 kilowatts of continuous electric power.
In conjunction with conventional methods, compact and lightweight reactor are ideal for providing electricity for lunar exploration. The permanently-shadowed craters that dot the Moon's South Pole-Aitken Basin are capable of operating continuously. During lunar nights, solar power is largely unavailable, making reactor highly desirable.
NASA envisions a system that will provide 40 kilowatts of power, enough to power 30 houses for ten years. Nuclear power systems can be scaled to create smaller and lighter systems thanks to how the technology has matured. This is important to fulfill NASA's requirement for power systems that can autonomously operate from the deck of a lunar lander or a lunar surface rover.
A Mars transit habitat with a nuclear system is depicted in an artist's conception. Credit: NASA.
In the future, a system like the FSB could provide enough power to sustain a lunar base and an outpost on Mars. Dust storms on Mars can grow large enough to encompass the entire planet and last for months. At times like this, solar energy is unreliable, and wind power, batteries, and fuel cells can only pick up so much slack.
This research will help in the development of nuclear propulsion systems that rely on reactor to generate power. Travel time to Mars could be shortened to just 100 days with the use of Nuclear-Thermal and Nuclear-Electric Propulsion technologies. NASA has been researching the technology for a long time and has very encouraging results.
NASA and the DOE will select US companies to develop initial designs. The final design and construction of flight-qualified fission power systems will be the subject of an industry solicitation next year. The winner of this phase will get to compete in a demonstration mission to the moon. If everything goes well, surface operations on the Moon and Mars will not have to worry about the lights going out.
Further reading: NASA.
