NASA and the US Department of Energy are funding the development of initial design ideas for a 40 kW FSP system that is planned to operate for at least ten years in the lunar environment
NASA and the US Department of Energy are working together to advance nuclear technologies in space. They selected three proposals for design ideas for a fission power generation (FSP) system that could be ready for launch by the end of the decade for a demonstration on the moon. This technology will help future research within Artemis.
The value of the contracts, which will be awarded through the Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, is approximately $5 million each. The contracts fund the development of initial design ideas for a 40 kW FSP system that is planned to operate for at least ten years in the lunar environment.
The FSP system, which are small and lightweight compared to other power generation systems, are reliable and can provide continuous electricity regardless of location, available sunlight and other natural environmental conditions. Demonstration of such systems on the Moon would pave the way for extended missions on the Moon and Mars.
"New technologies are driving exploration of the Moon, Mars and beyond," said Jim Reuter, deputy administrator of NASA's Space Technology Mission Administration. "The development of these initial designs will help us lay the infrastructure for power supply for our long-term manned presence on other worlds."
Battelle Energy Alliance, the administrator and operating contractor of the Idaho National Laboratory, led the development, evaluation and procurement of the NASA-sponsored RFP. The Idaho National Laboratory will award 12-month contracts to these companies to each develop preliminary designs:
- Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Maryland – The company will be a partner of BWXT and Creare.
- Westinghouse of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania - The company will be a partner of Aerojet Rocketdyne.
- IX of Houston, Texas, a joint venture with Intuitive Machines and X-Energy - The company will be a partner of Maxar and Boeing.
"The FSP project is an achievable first step for the United States to produce nuclear power on the moon," said Idaho National Laboratory Director John Wagner. "I look forward to seeing the achievements of each of these teams."
The first phase contracts will provide NASA with critical industry input that could lead to the joint development of a complete flight-certified FPS system. FSP technologies will also help NASA advance the development of nuclear propulsion systems that rely on reactors to generate electricity. It would be possible to use these systems for deep space exploration missions.
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Another note on why there is no such thing as safe nuclear reactors.
It is not about problems that can only happen with the miners themselves.
Problems (negligence, corruption) can happen during the production of the reactors, during the transportation of their components and the transportation of the nuclear material, theft of nuclear material.
Problems during repairs and routine maintenance in reactors.
Problems in decommissioning old nuclear reactors.
In short, it is better to live even with polluted air and water than fuels. This is something that can be dealt with in different ways.
But nuclear contamination is very difficult to deal with.
Eli Isaac
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anonymous user,
thank you for your response.
Contrary to misleading publications in the name of experts, there is no such thing as a safe nuclear reactor.
There is no such thing as a "safe product" in human work.
There will always be negligence, corruption (giving up something to save someone a few shekels). A recent example is the corruption they discovered in an atomic reactor in the country they ordered
Plastering the walls with radiation protection and the supplier did the job with normal paint
to save himself a lot of money.
Besides, there are severe earthquakes, lightning, maybe even meteors, missiles and more.
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Eli, there is no need for strong laser beams when there are strong sun rays.
Transporting fuel is not worth the energy spent.
And you won't be able to ban nuclear reactors on Earth because countries like Russia and China will put a bar on what you ban, and Western countries now know how to build safe reactors.
Ron,
Thank you for your response to what I wrote.
In your opinion, in a war is it possible for a missile to hit a nuclear reactor and cause a major radioactive disaster?
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I have some nonsense "nuclear disasters" that apart from the Soviet disaster, not a single person was killed in them (and not in the future).
Oh, and that's right, a computer science guy (LALAND).
Computer science people and software engineers will deal with computer games and applications and not in the real world.
We must ban the construction of nuclear reactors on Earth. This is our only home and we must protect it
from nuclear disasters.
The moon is currently a wonderful place to build a large network of nuclear reactors.
Then we can find ways to bring the energy we generate on the moon to Earth.
for example:
1. Transmission of very strong laser beams from the moon to the space station and from there again transmission to the earth.
2. Using the energy we produce on the moon to create some kind of fuel that is sent in cargo spaceships to Earth (perhaps solid hydrogen)
Eli Isaac is a private teacher of computer science at an academic level
https://eisaak123.wixsite.com/privatelessons