Page 14 - IAV Digital Magazine #549

Nuclear Power Plants On The Moon? NASA Taps These 3 Firms For Designs
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
June 21– NASA announced the winning bids for a concept design award on behalf of nuclear fission energy systems that will reside on the surface of the moon. Winning bids for this award were sub- mitted by Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse and IX (a joint venture from Intuitive Machines and X-energy).
In case you missed it, NASA plans to place nuclear power plants on the moon by 2030. To accomplish this feat, the space agency is partner- ing with the US Department of Energy and other big-name organi- zations.
Reactors will “help sustain future missions
on the moon, Mars and beyond,”
says NASA. Large quantities of energy are key in future space exploration.
In addition to nuclear plant development, the work completed on behalf of this contract could also have applica- tions for propul- sion systems that can assist long-
range space crafts in deep space exploration.
The idea of a nuclear reactor on the moon may come across as unusual or dan- gerous. According to Andrew Crabtree, founder the Get Into Nuclear employ- ment agency, many factors were weighed in NASA’s decision.
“...the issue of whether it’s safe to use nuclear power in space is not one of them...Nuclear energy has been used in space numerous times before,” and per- sons concerned with pollution or cleanliness of outer space should rest easy.
“...almost every single space mis- sion you’ve ever heard of has used radioisotope ther- moelectric gener- ators, which have Plutonium-238 as their electricity source,” he says.
Despite assur- ances, the ques- tion of whether or not to place a nuclear power plant on the moon continues to dis- turb at least a few energy experts, business profes- sionals and citi-
zens alike.
“With the rapidly falling cost of truly clean power from the sun, wind, and small-scale hydro, plus the growing efficien- cies we’ve achieved through conservation, there is no reason to go through a lengthy, expen- sive, and fraught process,” says Shel Horowitz, a profitability and marketing con- sultant for green businesses.
“When, not if, something goes wrong, how will we fix the prob- lem, especially if it’s an urgent one?” asked CEO of Melink Corp., Steve Melink. Instead, he rec- ommended that NASA use solar photovolatics as a pragmatic solution to energy woes.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine