NASA Builds Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon

  NASA plans to build a nuclear power plant on the Moon. Nuclear energy is an alternative energy to support human colonization on the Moon.

Source : Moon/Google.com

The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA is ready to build the first nuclear power plant on the Moon. This plant will provide clean, safe and reliable energy to support sustainable human colonization of the Moon. If all goes well, this nuclear power plant or nuclear power plant will start operating in the early 2030s.

The use of nuclear energy in space exploration missions is increasingly massive. Since 1961, nuclear has been used as a power source for a number of space probes traveling to the edge of the Solar System or satellites orbiting the Earth. Currently, NASA and the US Advanced Defense Research Agency (DARPA) are also preparing a nuclear-powered rocket launcher for launch in 2026.

Not only that, NASA is also trying to complete plans to build the first nuclear reactor on the Moon. This nuclear energy will be converted into electrical energy which is used to support missions that take place when it is night on the Moon. In contrast to Earth, where day and night are around 12 hours, the length of day or night on the Moon is 14 days.

As Earth's satellite, the Moon orbits the Earth for 27.3 Earth days. While evolving, the Moon also rotates on its axis. However, due to the locking of the Earth's tidal forces, the Moon's revolution period is the same as the Moon's rotation period. As a result, the length of one day on the Moon is also 27.3 Earth days, so the length of the day or night is around 14 days.

The long nights on the Moon make solar energy unreliable as a resource for producing electrical energy. Therefore, alternative energy is needed that is reliable, clean and safe considering that this plant will operate in an environment whose authenticity must be maintained by international law.

“Night on the Moon presents its own technical challenges. "The existence of a nuclear reactor that operates independently of the Sun is the most feasible option, both for scientific purposes and long-term exploration on the Moon," said NASA Technology Test Mission Program Director Trudy Kortes, Wednesday (31/1/2024), as quoted by Livescience, Friday (2/2/2024).

Development stage

Currently, the construction of this reactor is in the concept development stage. Quoting the NASA website, of the two choices of nuclear generating technology commonly used in space missions, the choice fell on reactors with fission technology (FPS), similar to those used in nuclear power plants on Earth.

This technology relies on a continuous process of fission or splitting of heavy nuclei using the uranium-235 isotope. This process is capable of producing electricity supplies with capacities ranging from kilowatts to megawatts.

Meanwhile, the nuclear generating technology that was not chosen was a reactor with radioisotope technology (RPS). This model utilizes the natural thermal decay process of the radioactive isotope plutonium-238. The main problem is that this technology is only capable of producing 1 kilowatt of electrical energy.

For the development of a fission reactor design on the Moon, in early 2022, NASA and the US Department of Energy awarded contracts to three companies, namely Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse, and IX, which is a joint venture of Intuitive Machines and X-Energy. They were tasked with making an initial design of the reactor and its supporting subsystems, cost estimates, and a development schedule.

The reactor is expected to be able to work for at least 10 years.

NASA estimates that the reactor is capable of producing 40 kilowatts of electrical energy. This amount of power could be used to light 33 houses on Earth, but is enough to power a number of research facilities on the Moon. The reactor is expected to be able to work for at least 10 years.

This plant uses low-enriched uranium fuel whose fuel weight is limited to a maximum of 6,000 kilograms. This fuel weight limitation is necessary because it greatly affects the launch process. The heavier the load carried, the greater the launch rocket energy required.

Apart from these various limitations, design developers are given freedom of ideas and creativity in the technical aspects of reactor construction. According to the plan, this reactor will be placed near the south pole of the Moon, namely the area on the lunar surface where water ice and a number of volatile compounds are found.

After the initial design for the nuclear power plant on the Moon is completed, NASA plans to extend the contract to perfect the existing design. In the next stage, it is hoped that the nuclear reactor design will be complete and ready to be tested in the lunar environment. The next phase of the nuclear power plant development project on the Moon will not be carried out until 2025.

If all processes run smoothly, it is hoped that the first nuclear power plant on the Moon can be launched in the early 2030s. If successful, capable of supporting human life on Earth on the Moon, this reactor will be used for the next human colonization mission in outer space, namely the red planet Mars.

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