The nuclear moon
I found an interesting article from BBC here NASA will now fast-track the building of a nuclear power-plant on the moon.
It sounds a bit outrageous, somehow. Why nuclear? Would about all those solar panels we see whenever there is something space-thing going on. On a side not: where does NASA buy them? China? Like the rest of us?
The question is of course: why a nuclear plant on the moon?
The explanation is actually rather pedestrian. If we are to have a permanent moon-base, we do need a reliant power supply. Coal-fired plant like Medupi will not be a solution.
Solar panels? But here is the catch. I quote: “One lunar day is equivalent to four weeks on Earth, made up of two weeks of continual sunshine and two weeks of darkness. That makes relying on solar power very challenging”.
woo Lim, senior lecturer in space applications, exploration and instrumentation at the university of Surrey.
“Nuclear energy is not just desirable, it is inevitable,” he adds”.
But what kind of reactor will it be? Another BBC article here provides some answers.
Have we had a reactor in space before? And especially on the moon? Yes, we have: “A radioisotope thermal generator was first used on the Moon in 1969, on Apollo 11, using heat generated by the decay of radioactive plutonium-238 to keep scientific instruments at a working temperature.
On Apollo 12 this heat was converted into electricity to power an instrument package, marking the first use of a nuclear reactor on the Moon, albeit not on the scale we have on Earth”. So yes. We have done it.
The major problem is to upscale it. Those small Apollo reactors were minute. Although we are not going to build another Koberg, they will have to be substantially bigger.
We have had reactors on different spacecrafts like Pioneer, Voyager and Cassini. It is not very new. The challenge is that the moon reactor will have to have lifespan measured in decades.
So we need to have some power going for receiving the components and then also for putting it together. That wil mean solar panels and batteries – that also will have to be ferried up there.
We can then build for 2 weeks and take a 2-week break during the long night on the moon. And then?
From a project management perspective it is not going to be easy at all.
I quote: “Building even a modest lunar habitat to accommodate a small crew would demand megawatt-scale power generation. Solar arrays and batteries alone cannot reliably meet those demands,” suggests Dr Sung-
The Cassini reactor
“In 2022, Nasa awarded contracts to Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse and IX, a collaboration between Intuitive Machines and X-Energy”.
Russia and China are working together to get a moon-base and reactor going by 2035. UK is not far behind either. Rolls-Royce are designing a new reactor for the moon.
Rolls-Royce? Will it have the winged lady as a mascot? Well, Rolls-Royce have been building jet engines for a long list of commercial airlines. They know what that part is all about. And even better: they have build the reactors for the UK nuclear submarines. So they know what it is all about.
One thing is to build the reactor. But it needs to be used as well. That means the moon-base will have to be there as well. And it needs to be coordinated. Having the reactor and no people is wasting time. Having people and no power is a calamity.
The factor is also size and weight. How many trips to the moon will it take to ferry all of it up there? Are we talking tons of equipment? Hundreds of tons? The traffic to and fro can then be substantial.
So we now have the power installed. But that is only a part of it. We need to build a grid like we have in any normal city on Earth. So the cabling will have to be extensive and then wiring up the buildings. How many electricians will we have to have in space?
The moon-base will now have to have plenty of the people that will look after any infra-structure.
The plumber when the toilet is blocked, the builder when we need to extend the house, maybe a Checkers for the food. Suddenly it becomes a lot more than just a few people roaming the moon in fancy suits.
Exciting yes, but a logistical nightmare.
Oh yes, we are also busy on developing micro-reactors for Earth-based environments. Portable and small.
