Why is the United States building a nuclear reactor in the month
“There is certainly a policy that we didn’t have before,” he adds. “The latest and most important thing is the private sector not only interested in using space nuclear energy, but they are even interested in providing space nuclear energy.” Both startups and aerospace companies such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin are investigating the use of nuclear energy in space. “There are many puzzle pieces that have come together in a good way, where we can actually move.”
NASA’s Artemis program is set to provide the basis for a permanent base in the southern lunar pole and pioneering technologies to move to Mars, though its future is unclear. Regardless of this, the energy needs of any crew mission in strange environments such as the moon, where the night lasts two weeks and the temperature fluctuates brutally, requires sustainable power.
“Lunar gravity and brutal thermal fluctuations,” says Lal. “The temperature of the day is about 100 degrees Celsius. The night is close to the absolute zero. All electronics must be hard to radiate. Although I will be honest, the biggest danger is not the mainstream of that movement and the purpose of the mission.”
Arrive in China, which is also planning a moon base in South Antarctica. The area is full of water resources and ice that makes it an attractive place for potential exploration and presence, and China is negotiating with Russia to cooperate in building a reactor in 2035. These developments have Galvanized officials in NASA, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Energy to enter the competition.
“This can be done, because we are doing very well here in the United States to have a strong enemy and have no more than 40 years,” said Mohammed El Genk, a professor of nuclear engineering and nuclear engineering at the University of New Mexico. “But a lot of things have to be done to happen.”
How do they work all?
The Dofi directive contained little details about the design or scale of the reactor, and guess what concepts may appear in the coming months.
“To further promote US competition and the lunar leadership under the Artemis campaign, NASA is rapidly advancing the development of fission level,” said Bethani Stevens, a press secretary at NASA’s headquarters. “This important technology supports lunar exploration, provides high -energy energy production on Mars, and enhances our national security in space, including efforts to promote development, NASA sets a new program program management, as well as issuing a proposal for the industry within 60 days,” he said.
The directive repeats the findings of a recent report on space nuclear energy, collaborated by Roger Myers by LAL and aerospace engineer, which includes the “GO BIG or Go Home” option to build a 100 kW reactor in the month to 2030.
This 100 -kW design is “almost equivalent to sending an African adult couple to the moon with a folding umbrella the size of a basketball ground, except for elephants, and not an umbrella for shade, this is to pour heat into space.”
