“There is now certainty of a policy that we have not had before,” he adds. “Finally, the private sector is interested not only in using space nuclear energy, but is even interested in providing cosmic nuclear energy.” Both Startups And established aviation companies, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, are investigating the operate of nuclear energy in space. “There are many elements of puzzles that have joined in a good way in which we can move.”
However, the Artemis NASA program is to put the foundations for a lasting base in Lunar South Run and Pioneer Technologies to go to Mars His future is uncertain. Regardless, the energy needs of all crew missions in exotic environments, such as the moon, in which the nights last two weeks and temperatures change rapidly, require constant and plentiful power.
“Moon gravity and thermal swings are brutal,” says Lal. “Temperatures during the day are about 100 degrees Celsius. Nighttime is close to absolute zero. All electronics must be hardened. Although I will be honest, the greatest risk is not technical. The greatest risk is maintaining this pace and the purpose of the mission.”
Go to China, which also plans the moon base at the South Pole. This region is affluent in water resources and ice, which makes it an attractive place for exploration and a potential lasting presence, and China talks to Russia to build a reactor there until 2035. These events have lively officials in NASA, defense department and energy department to get to the race.
“This can be done because we are doing very well here in the USA, when we have a strong opponent, and we have not been for 40 years,” says Mohamed El-Genk, professor of nuclear engineering and director, the founder of the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies at the University of Fresh Mexico. “But many things should be developed to make it happen.”
How will it all work?
The Duffy directive contained several details about the design or scale of the planned reactor, and no one can guess what concepts may appear in the coming months.
“To further develop competition in the USA and leadership on the Moon’s surface as part of the Artemis campaign, NASA moves quickly to develop the development of the energy of the fission surface,” said Bethany Stevens, a press secretary at the headquarters of NASA Wired. “This critical technology will support the exploration of the moon, ensure high -power energy production and strengthen our national security in space. Among the efforts to develop NASA development, it will designate the new director of the program to manage this work, and also issue a request for a proposal for industry within 60 days. NASA will publish additional details about this proposal in the future.”
The directive resembles the findings recent report For Space Nuclear Power, co -author through a doll and air engineer Roger Myers, who included the “Go Big or Go Home” option to build a 100 kW reactor on the moon until 2030.
This 100 kW project would be “approximately equivalent to sending several adult African elephants to the moon with a fold-out umbrella size of a basketball pitch, with the exception of elephants produce heat, and the umbrella is not to the shadow, it is used to throw heat into space,” said Lal in the next email to Wired.