NASA hopes to station nuclear reactors on the moon

| June 26, 2022

NASA wants to use fission power systems on the moon to help power equipment and installations. (NASA)

Three design proposals have been selected by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy for the first single run of this technology. NASA ultimately wants to use fission surface power systems to power equipment and stations on the moon. These nuclear reactors would produce power regardless of the amount of sunlight or other environmental conditions.

From Fox Weather:

The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory will award 12-month contracts to the following companies to each develop preliminary designs:

Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Maryland — The company will partner with BWXT and Creare.
Westinghouse of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania — The company will partner with Aerojet Rocketdyne.

IX of Houston, Texas, a joint venture of Intuitive Machines and X-Energy — The company will partner with Maxar and Boeing.

“The Fission Surface Power project is a very achievable first step toward the United States establishing nuclear power on the Moon,” said Idaho National Laboratory Director John Wagner. “I look forward to seeing what each of these teams will accomplish.”

“Plentiful energy will be key to future space exploration,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) in Washington. “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 system will be relatively small and lightweight compared to other power systems. Fission systems are reliable and could enable continuous power regardless of location, sunlight and other natural environmental conditions.

Fox Weather has more on this space exploration energy plan here.

Category: It's science!, NASA

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STSC(SW/SS)

Good enough for the moon but not here on planet earth. Fucking retards.

David

I kinda like the idea of working all the bugs out a quarter million miles away, me.

Hack Stone

Why don’t they install solar panels? Are they destroying that environment too?

And what if there is a nuclear accident? Have they conducted an environmental impact study on how it may affect the moon Poe industry?

RGR 4-78

Here’s pie in your eye. 😉 

Maybe the nuke protestors can go to the moon to protest and be left there.

Last edited 1 year ago by RGR 4-78
AW1Ed

Why does NASA hate the Moon? Chip?

*grin*

ChipNASA

You know we don’t hate the moon it’s just that we were following directions from the extra terrestrial galactic community. The reason we quit the Apollo missions and haven’t been back to the moon and 50 years because we were given direct instructions from the offworld extraterrestrials that we were not to return. In their infinite wisdom they have finally decided that the human race has achieved a level of advancement which was probably enhanced by these last weeks rulings, That they are considering exposing the many many decades of relationships with earth governments and hundreds of years of visitation. The tide has turned in a positive fashion and we will be returning to the moon and they will make their presence known to the entire human race and we will advance forward into the solar and intergalactic systems. Now that I have completed my talking points from listening to coast to coast a.m. between one and five in the morning I have a serious question.

ChipNASA

AW1Ed,
What do you have against cheese? Are you lactose intolerant? Are you an anti-dairy-ite? 😑😜😅

jeff LPH 3 63-66

They will have to get permission from the man in the moon and if it comes to talks over lunch, I hope the man in the moon moons the peeps he is having dinner with by the light of the silvery moon, but maybe it will take many moons to get this going.

AZRobert

An Idea, send all the left to the moon to study the impact first and wait…

Sapper3307

“Why not windmills, on the Moon?”
AOC

Wireman611

My biggest laugh of the day!

timactual

I hear the solar wind is unreliable.

Roh-Dog

Ok Space Force and NASA, this goes without saying but I’m going to anyway: whatever you do, keep this thing away from the Marines. And no, the moon isn’t far enough away.

Insert preemptive ‘I told you so’.

JustALurkinAround

And keep it away from the Army as well. The Army demonstrated in 1961 that no Soldier should ever be near a fucking reactor.

Roh-Dog

Ageerd! We’d try to have the sex with it, upon failing pawn it.

Marine would eat it… after trying to have sex with it.

For context SL-1 Incident

George V

I’d like to see a reactor built on Earth first, one that actually is completed, ideally within budget and on time as opposed to years late.

A functional heavy-lift rocket that can get to the moon would be nice too. The one NASA and Boeing have been working on for years isn’t exactly doing much yet other than suck down oodles of dollars.

I’m always amazed at how giant aerospace or construction firms continue to get awarded tons of money in new projects when they can’t seem to produce on the near-term projects they’ve already been awarded.

A Proud Infidel®™

And NO Company will be given any contracts to produce these until the right kickbacks are given to the right politicians, DC Business as usual.

Hack Stone

Wonder what part of the contract has been subbed out to All Points Logistics?

UpNorth

My question is, will the Starbucks be on the same side of road, or across the road from the reactor. The worker drones gotta have someplace to go.

Docduracoat

What are react to the moon sounds like a good idea, launching the nuclear material from your surface tower space doesn’t introduce the danger of a release the radiation in the atmosphere if there is a mis app.

Docduracoat

Mishap

Docduracoat

That came out as gibberish!
While a reactor on the moon is a good idea, the launch from Earth of nuclear material does introduce the risk of a release of radioactive material if there is a launch accident.

RGR 4-78

I have been married for 40 years to my beloved, that has prepared me well for understanding gibberish, I understood perfectly what you had typed. 😆 

Fyrfighter

he system will be relatively small and lightweight compared to other power systems. Fission systems are reliable and could enable continuous power regardless of location, sunlight and other natural environmental conditions.

Hmm, almost sounds like some sort of similar technology could be useful here on earth…But that can’t be true, otherwise the environmentalists and government would be building them like crazy, right???

timactual

Great idea! We can start a pool to bet on how long it takes China or Russia to steal it.

KoB

I needs me a grubermint contract to do a study on how much taxpayer money is pissed away on “studies”.