NASA plans a nuclear reactor on the moon to power 'human colony living in shadows'

NASA has plans to place a nuclear reactor on the moon for future missions.

The mission is known as the Fission Surface Power Project and is one of the biggest targets for NASA's upcoming Artemis program.

NASA has plans to place a nuclear reactor on the moon for future missionsCredit: nasa.gov

Surface energy from nuclear fission could provide abundant and continuous energy on the moon regardless of environmental conditions.

This project could be critical to sustaining human settlements on the moon in the long term.

It could also enable the exploration of deeper space destinations in the future.

NASA just completed the first phase of the project, which began in 2022.

This phase included signing three $5 million contracts with commercial partners to develop fission reactor designs.

NASA awarded the contracts to Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse and IX.

Each contract has a term of twelve months, allowing the companies to develop preliminary designs.

The designs had to include the reactor, power conversion, heat rejection, energy management and distribution systems.

In addition, the companies had to estimate costs and create a development schedule “that could pave the way for a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface for at least a decade,” NASA explained on its website.

“A demonstration of a nuclear power source on the moon is needed to demonstrate that it is a safe, clean and reliable option,” said Trudy Kortes, program director of Technology Demonstration Missions within NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“The lunar night is challenging from an engineering perspective, so having an energy source like this nuclear reactor, which operates independently of the sun, is an opportunity for long-term exploration and scientific efforts on the moon,” she added.

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NASA could use nuclear reactors to generate light and power in the permanently shadowed parts of the moon.

They could also use them to get through lunar nights – one lunar night is the equivalent of 14 nights on Earth.

NASA specified that the reactor had to be under six tons and be able to produce 40 kilowatts (kW) of electrical power.

This provides enough energy for “demonstration purposes and additional power available for running lunar habitats, rovers, backup grids or scientific experiments,” the US space agency explains.

In the US, 40 kW can provide electricity to 33 households on average.