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While the nuclear energy industry struggles to survive in the United States, bogged down by public and political mistrust, crushing the costs of maintaining nuclear waste and a market flooded with cheap natural gas, the country has major nuclear energy projects outside its borders. internal borders. Well outside.
In just a few years, the United States will send nuclear reactors to the Moon and Mars. According to members of the Kilopower project team, an initiative of NASA and the US Department of Energy, nuclear power is only a few years away from the space age.
"The Kilopower Project is a short-term technological effort to develop preliminary concepts and technologies that could be used for an affordable fission nuclear power system to allow long-term stays on planetary surfaces," he said. explains NASA's Space Technology Directorate. In concrete terms, the Kilopower project involves the use of an experimental fission reactor to power the crew outposts on the Moon and Mars, allowing researchers and scientists to stay and work longer than they were. currently possible.
Although it may sound straight out of a science fiction novel or Twilight Zone, the Kilopower Fission Reactor has already successfully completed its first ground tests. Patrick McClure, Project Leader Kilopower, says that not only will this project become a reality, it will be in the very near future. In a presentation with NASA's future space operations last month, McClure said, "I think we could do this in three years and be ready for the flight."
The official position of NASA is a little more conservative, not providing a precise timetable. Its "Space Technology Branch" simply states that "the Kilopower project team is developing mission concepts and carrying out additional risk reduction activities to prepare for a possible flight demonstration," adding that the potential of this demonstration would be "To pave the way for future Kilopower systems that power human outposts on the Moon and Mars, enabling mission operations in challenging environments and missions that use in situ resource use to produce thrusters premises and other materials. " Related: Trump, OPEC jaw oil in opposite directions
Although this is not the first time that nuclear energy has been used to advance lawsuits to the last frontier, the Kilopower project is a much more ambitious and powerful project than any of its predecessors. According to Space.com, "Nuclear power has been fueling spacecraft for decades. NASA's Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes, the New Horizons spacecraft and the Mars Curiosity robot, as well as many other robotic explorers, use radioisotope thermoelectric (RTG) generators that convert the heat released from the radioisotope into electricity. radioactive decay of plutonium 238.
However, this model would not produce enough energy to power a crewed outpost on Mars or the Moon, which will require much higher energy requirements. "The power of RTGs is relatively small. The one used by NASA's Curiosity and future March 2020 rover, for example, generates about 110 watts of electricity early in a mission. (This output slowly decreases over time.) "
On the other hand, the Kilopower prototype is a much more powerful source of energy. Futurism reports that "the Kilopower prototype is about the size of a refrigerator and fits into a rocket. It could provide a base with about 40 kilowatts of electricity, or about enough electricity for eight homes on the planet. The Kilopower prototype is also much more efficient. During last year's ground tests on the KRUSTY reactor (Kilopower reactor using Stirling technology), the reactor prototype "converted 30% of the fission heat into electricity," reports Space.com. "This efficiency is superior to that of RTGs, which convert about 7% of available heat."
If the first tests in the Kilopower space are actually launched within three years and if they perform well, it would open a new era for space research, innovation and industry. The ability to place people in space for longer and to fuel more ambitious and ambitious projects than ever before will pave the way for countless hitherto imaginary pursuits that will make of what is already a space industry $ 400 billion of.
By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com
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