NASA and the nation’s top federal nuclear research lab on 19th November 2021, put out a request for proposals for a fission surface power system. NASA is collaborating with the US 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.
Sebastian Corbisiero, the Fission Surface Power Project lead at the lab Said :
“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,”
If successful in supporting a sustain human presence on he Moon, the next objective would be Mars.
NASA says fission surface power could provide sustain, abundant power no matter the environmental conditions on the Moon or Mars.
Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, Said :
“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,”
The reactor would be built on Earth and then sent to the Moon.
Submit plans for the fission surface power system should include a uranium-fuel 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 remove from the lander and run on a mobile system and be transport to a different lunar site for operation.
When launch from Earth to the Moon, it should fit inside a 12-foot (4-meter) diameter cylinder that’s 18 feet (6 meters) long.
Also it should not weigh more than 13,200 pounds (6,000 kilograms).
The proposal requests are for an initial system design and must be submit by 19th February 2022.
The Idaho National Laboratory has work with NASA on various projects in the past.
The lab help power NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance with a radioisotope power system, which converts heat generate by the natural decay of plutonium-238 into electrical power.
The car-size rover land on Mars in February and has remain 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 remove when not need.
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