The next era of Nuclear Power is on the Moon: here’s why!
I have been following humankind’s rekindled interest in going back to the Moon since the beginning of this decade — I shared my thoughts on all the different lunar missions in 2020 in the article “Mankind’s race to Moon, again!”
With aims of a more long-term settlements and deeper explorations on the Moon than before, the space community and everyone in general has been looking forward to all the developments in this direction. But recently, nuclear power has made an entry to this decade’s exploration of our Moon, and it has the potential to become a permanent feature of these lunar missions, while also finding its new ground to push the envelope for scientific breakthroughs on our little neighbour.
Recent announcements by NASA and UK Space Agency
According to a press release, NASA is working together with the Department of Energy(DoE) to explore nuclear fission power systems for the Moon, which might potentially be ready for launch by the end of this decade for a demonstration on the Moon under the Artemis mission. For this, they are partnering with 3 companies — Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse, and IX of Houston (a joint venture of Intuitive machines and X-energy) — to develop what is being called a fission surface power system.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the UK Space Agency has announced its backing of the Rolls-Royce’s project to build a micro-reactor for the Moon, in collaboration with University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and Nuclear AMRC, and the University of Oxford. They have the same timeline, with the aim to have the reactor ready to send to the Moon by 2029.
These announcements have created a buzz of excitement in both the space and the nuclear industry, and it begets the question — why are we looking at resources for electricity and why the increased interest in nuclear power?
Why are we looking at resources for electricity?
Thanks to NASA’s Artemis Mission, which aims to establish the first long-term presence on the Moon by the end of this decade, there is a need to look for resources necessary for any human settlement. Electricity is one such resource and this is where nuclear power comes into play.
We all know that electricity is an indispensable part of our lives today. With the ever-increasing use of technology, anything and everything we use is powered by electricity, and for a permanent settlement 384,400 kms away from Earth, electricity is needed not only for survival, but also for very long travels.
This brings us to the quest of finding some of the most efficient sources of power and electricity. Space missions have for a long time depended on solar power(for long travels and rover missions on different planets where a good amount of sunlight is guaranteed), batteries for some shorter travels, and radio isotopic power(creating electricity from unstable atoms when they fall back to the ground stable state).
Why choose Nuclear Energy for electricity?
Nuclear energy is an atom-based energy which is generated by the splitting of a bigger, heavier nucleus into smaller, more stable atoms in a process called fission. Usually in a nuclear power plant, a neutron hits a uranium atom, generating a large amount of heat and radiation, along with more neutrons and other stable atoms. These neutrons then go on to collide with the other uranium atoms causing a chain of fission reactions and the energy generated from this process is converted to electricity.
Even though there is a huge cost involved in setting up a nuclear fission reactor, it is one of the cleanest sources of Energy on Earth — with a carbon footprint of only 15–50 g CO2 per kilowatt hour of power.
But the most important factor is how powerful nuclear power is compared to any other source of energy used in space explorations till now.
Just one uranium pellet(about the size of a fingertip) contains as much energy as 1 ton of coal or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas or 2460 kiloWatt hour of energy!
This means they will be super convenient to carry on space missions — taking up very little space. On the other hand, to generate the same amount of solar power(2460 kWh), considering that solar panels generate 220W per sq metre energy in space, we need approximately 11,000 sq metres area of solar panels!
Moreover, nuclear power is not dependent on the physical conditions and environment of the planetary or lunar surface, which makes them a more reliable and continuous source of power for long-term settlements.
Exploration of nuclear energy for space missions and settlements is just a small step, yet a very exciting one, towards electricity generation systems for sustainable living on Mars, and even deep-space exploration missions! Nuclear energy has had its own dark history, embroiled in wars, suffering, and politics — but this gives us a glimmer of hope that advancements in Space will be able to bring all the players together to use Nuclear Power for the good of mankind.
