Moon Nuclear Plant
NASA declared that they will put a nuclear plant on the moon before 2030, which generates 1000 kilowatts of energy. Their main source of energy is solar panels right now, but the moon and Mars can’t get as much sun as Earth, so they had to find an alternative.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (A.K.A. NASA) decided that since with the development of technology, humans will eventually go to the moon and Mars. They decided to add a nuclear reactor, which has been powering human society for more than 70 years, onto the moon. This is because their main source of energy for their spacecrafts right now is solar panels, of which the moon can have two weeks of no exposure to the sun, and Mars is further away from the Sun than Earth, therefore, less powerful solar energy. This can dictate future space travel for mankind.
The decision was declared by Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, who is now also NASA’s acting administrator. The previous radioactive energies that were used to power technology on different planets were plutonium, of which the natural radiation decay was turned into electricity. But, this wasn’t efficient, because as it decays, the amount of energy that gets generated becomes less and less. For example, the Voyager 1, when it first landed, could generate 470 watts using the decay of plutonium, but is now generating 225 watts instead because of the decay. This makes it more like a battery than an actual generator.
This project seeks to harness the power of fission, which is, for example, the action of splitting atoms of uranium. This chain separation of atoms generates far more energy than the “batteries” of plutonium decay.
Some of the problems they face are trying to regulate the temperatures of the reactor, since the surface of the moon swings from 250 to negative 400 degress Fahrenhiet and also has to be small enough to fit inside a rocket. These are the main issues that they are facing with this project, but the reactor is within the possibility of science to make it happen.
Although the reactor won’t happen for a few years, when it works, it will change our ability to traverse the cosmos and possibly how we power the world.
