By Courtesy of Rolls-Royce
The UK Space Agency is working with Rolls-Royce to develop a nuclear microreactor capable of powering an entire space base, buildings and vehicles, on the Moon.
The UK Space Agency is working with Rolls-Royce to develop a nuclear microreactor capable of powering an entire space base, buildings and vehicles, on the Moon.
Rolls-Royce, which specializes in aircraft engines and turbines, has teamed up with the UK Space Agency to conduct research into nuclear power and its potential uses for a future lunar base. The program is designed to develop technology that will provide the energy needed for humans to live and work on the Moon. This is a key issue in the field of space exploration, since any future lunar base will need to have its own energy source.
Thanks to new funding, the project hopes to be able to achieve a first demonstration of a UK lunar modular nuclear reactor. Relatively small and light compared to other power systems, the kind of microreactor being envisaged could provide a continuous power supply, regardless of the chosen location, environmental conditions or available sunlight. Moreover, Rolls-Royce's research shows that this use of nuclear energy could considerably increase the duration of lunar missions.
Rolls-Royce plans to have a reactor ready to send to the moon by 2029. But today, its work focuses on the fuel used to generate heat, the method of transferring this heat and the technology used to convert it into electricity.
In addition to being used on the Moon, this technology could very well be used for commercial and even military purposes, the goal being to achieve the cleanest possible and most sustainable energy source.
