This revolutionary technology from NASA could make a city on Mars possible

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Over the next 15 years, more space agencies and their business partners plan to organize manned missions to the Moon and Mars.

In addition to placing “footprints and flags” on these celestial bodies, there are plans to establish the infrastructure for a long-term human presence. Several technologies are currently under research and development to meet these mission requirements and ensure the safety of astronauts.

Essentially, these technologies aim at achieving self-sufficiency in terms of resources, materials and energy.

To ensure these missions have all the energy they need to conduct operations, NASA is developing a Fission Surface Power (FSP) system to provide a safe, efficient and reliable electricity supply. Combined with solar cells, batteries and fuel cells, this technology will enable short-term long-term missions to the Moon and Mars.

For NASA, having fission reactors for operations on the lunar surface is a vital part of the Artemis program, which aims to create a “sustained lunar exploration” program. This means infrastructure is needed, such as the Lunar Gateway (where spacecraft will dock and refuel) and the Artemis Base Camp on the surface, where astronauts will eat, train and sleep when not conducting extravehicular activities (EVAs), i.e. surface.

Artist’s impression of the Kilopower fission reactor on the Moon.NASA / JPL-Caltech

This base will require a significant amount of electricity so that astronauts can recharge the rovers, conduct experiments and produce water, propellant, building materials and oxygen using the Moon’s natural resources, a process known as In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). . Jim Reuter is the associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), which funds the fission surface energy project.

“The abundance of energy will be the key to future space exploration,” he said in a NASA press release. “I expect fission surface power systems to greatly benefit our plans for energy architectures for the Moon and Mars and even drive innovation for uses here on Earth.”

The concept is based on NASA’s Kilopower project, an effort to create a small, lightweight fission system capable of delivering up to 10 kilowatts of power continuously for at least ten years.

The project ended in March 2018 with the successful completion of the Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Tech (KRUSTY) demonstrator. This prototype consisted of a solid molten uranium-235 reactor core (about the size of a paper roll) and passive sodium heat pipes that transferred the heat generated by slow fission reactions to highly efficient Stirling engines, which they convert heat into electricity.

Building on this success, NASA has since partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy – through the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) operated by Battelle Energy Alliance – to develop the Kilopower-inspired FSP for the Artemis program. This will culminate with a technology demonstration, tentatively scheduled for the early 2030s, which will see a reactor prototype sent to the moon to test its capabilities in lunar conditions.

Artistic concept of a fission surface energy system on Mars.NASA

As Todd Tofil, FSP Project Manager at NASA’s Glenn Research Center explained:

“NASA and DOE are collaborating on this important and exciting development which, when completed, will be an incredible step towards long-term human exploration of the Moon and Mars. We will leverage the unique capabilities of government and private industry to provide reliable and continuous energy, independent of the lunar position. “

On November 19, NASA and the DOE issued a solicitation to American companies for design concepts for a fission energy system that could be ready for launch within a decade for a demonstration on the moon.

As stated in the solicitation documents, the FSP should consist of “a uranium-fueled reactor core, a power conversion system (PCS), a thermal management system and an energy management and distribution system (PMAD). with a capacity to supply no less than 40 kilowatts of continuous electricity to the user interface at the end of its life. “

Compact and lightweight fission reactors are considered ideal for providing electricity for lunar exploration in combination with conventional methods. For starters, fission systems are reliable, capable of continuously operating in the permanently shadowed craters that dot the Moon’s South Pole-Aitken basin. Solar power is not available mainly during lunar nights (which last for 14 Earth days), which makes reactors highly desirable.

The system envisioned by NASA will provide at least 40 kilowatts of power, enough to continuously power 30 homes here on Earth for 10 years. Thanks to how technology has matured, nuclear power systems can also be scaled to create compact and lightweight designs. This is key to meeting NASA’s Artemis mission requirements for power systems capable of operating autonomously from the deck of a lunar lander or lunar surface rover.

An artist’s conception shows a transit habitat on Mars with a nuclear propulsion system.NASA

Configured in this way, a system like the FSB could provide enough power to support a moon base and (in the coming decades) an outpost on Mars. On Mars, seasonal variations lead to dust storms that can sometimes become large enough to span the entire planet and last for months. At times like this, solar power is unreliable and wind power, batteries, and fuel cells can only absorb part of the game.

Another benefit of this research is how it will help develop nuclear propulsion systems that rely on reactors to generate energy. These include Nuclear-Thermal and Nuclear-Electric Propulsion (NTP / NEP) technologies, which could reduce travel time to Mars to just 100 days. Here too NASA has been researching the technology for decades, with very encouraging results (eg the NERVA reactor).

Over the next twelve months, NASA and DOE will select competing US companies to develop the initial projects. These will inform an industry request for the final design and construction of flight-qualified fission power systems next year. The finalists of this phase will have their finished projects compete for a demonstration mission to the Moon. Hopefully, surface operations on the Moon and Mars will never have to worry about turning off the lights.

This article originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, an independent journalism effort by Annual Reviews. Subscribe to the newsletter.

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