If anyone has a good idea on how to put a nuclear fission power plant on the
moon, the U.S. government wants to hear about it.
NASA and the nation's top federal nuclear research lab on Friday put out a
request for proposals for a fission surface power system.
NASA is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National
Laboratory to establish a sun-independent power source for missions to the
moon by the end of the decade.
"Providing a reliable, high-power system on the moon is a vital next step in
human space exploration, and achieving it is within our grasp," Sebastian
Corbisiero, the Fission Surface Power Project lead at the lab, said in a
statement.
If successful in supporting a sustained human presence on the moon, the next
objective would be Mars. NASA says fission surface power could provide
sustained, abundant power no matter the environmental conditions on the moon
or Mars.
"I expect fission surface power systems to greatly benefit our plans for
power architectures for the moon and Mars and even drive innovation for uses
here on Earth," Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA's Space
Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement.
The reactor would be built on Earth and then sent to the moon.
Submitted plans for the fission surface power system should include a
uranium-fueled reactor core, a system to convert the nuclear power into
usable energy, a thermal management system to keep the reactor cool, and a
distribution system providing no less than 40 kilowatts of continuous
electric power for 10 years in the lunar environment.
Some other requirements include that it be capable of turning itself off and
on without human help, that it be able to operate from the deck of a lunar
lander, and that it can be removed from the lander and run on a mobile
system and be transported to a different lunar site for operation.
Additionally, when launched from Earth to the moon, it should fit inside a
12-foot (4-meter) diameter cylinder that's 18 feet (6 meters) long. It
should not weigh more than 13,200 pounds (6,000 kilograms).
The proposal requests are for an initial system design and must be submitted
by Feb. 19.
The Idaho National Laboratory has worked with NASA on various projects in
the past. Most recently, the lab helped power NASA's Mars rover Perseverance
with a radioisotope power system, which converts heat generated by the
natural decay of plutonium-238 into electrical power.
The car-sized rover landed on Mars in February and has remained active on
the red planet.
The Energy Department has also been working to team up with private
businesses on various nuclear power plans, notably on a new generation of
smaller power plants that range from small modular reactors to small mobile
reactors that can quickly be set up in the field and then removed when not
needed.