4 May (NucNet): NASA and the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has successfully demonstrated a new nuclear reactor power system that could enable long-duration crewed missions to the Moon, Mars and destinations beyond.
NASA announced the results of the demonstration, called the Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY) experiment, during a news conference this week at its Glenn Research Centre in Cleveland. The Kilopower experimentwas conducted at the NNSA’s Nevada National Security Site from November 2017 until March 2018.
“Safe, efficient and plentiful energy will be the key to future robotic and human exploration,” said Jim Reuter, NASA’s acting associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) in Washington. “I expect the Kilopower project to be an essential part of lunar and Mars power architectures as they evolve.”
Kilopower is a small, lightweight fission power system capable of providing up to 10 kilowatts of electrical power – enough to run several average households – continuously for at least 10 years. Four Kilopower units would provide enough power to establish an outpost.
According to Marc Gibson, lead Kilopower engineer at Glenn, the pioneering power system is ideal for the Moon, where power generation from sunlight is difficult because lunar nights are equivalent to 14 days on Earth.
The prototype power system uses a solid, cast uranium-235 reactor core, about the size of a paper towel roll. Passive sodium heat pipes transfer reactor heat to high-efficiency Stirling engines, which convert the heat to electricity.
The purpose of the recent experiment in Nevada was two-fold: to demonstrate that the system can create electricity with fission power, and to show the system is stable and safe no matter what environment it encounters.
The Kilopower project is now developing mission concepts and performing additional risk reduction activities to prepare for a possible future flight demonstration.
Such a demonstration could pave the way for future Kilopower systems that power human outposts on the Moon and Mars, including missions that need to generate their own products with local materials, a practice called in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU).
For more information about the Kilopower project, visit: https://go.nasa.gov/2jtIxjK
