NASA Selects Three Companies To Produce Nuclear Power On The Moon

 

Nuclear energy sources have a bad reputation after the Chernobyl incidents, Three Mile Island and Fukushima. The benefits of cleaner energy sources compared to fossil fuels are beginning to be taken seriously in a world facing the issue of climate change. NASA has never had a problem with nuclear energy and has provided funds to three companies to produce prototypes of nuclear power plants that will be used on the lunar surface.

Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse and IX were each given $ 5 million in funding to produce a prototype nuclear power plant that could produce 40-kilowatts of power with a life of up to 10 years. Successful prototypes will then be tested on the lunar surface by the 2020s.

This nuclear power plant will supply power to the base that NASA and its allies will build on the surface of the moon under the Artemis Mission. Next with the base successfully built, the moon will be the launch center of the next mission to Mars. The use of nuclear energy will also be used on spacecraft under the DRACO Project by DARPA.