Battelle Energy Alliance and NASA are looking for industry partners to design a nuclear power system for lunar applications
Battelle Energy Alliance, a contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratory (INL), and NASA are seeking proposals from leading companies in the nuclear and aerospace industries to develop innovative technologies for fission power generation (FSP) for lunar power generation applications. You can see the request for suggestions here. The deadline for submitting bids is February 19, 2022.
The FSP project is supported by NASA in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and INL to develop a durable, high-power power source for NASA missions on the moon by the end of the decade, as well as possible missions thereafter. The purpose of requesting bids is the initial design of the system.
A draft of the request for proposals has garnered much interest in the industry. “The feedback and enthusiasm we continue to see regarding nuclear power systems in space is very exciting, and that’s understandable. Providing a reliable system with high power on the moon is the next vital step in humanity’s space exploration, and achieving it within our reach,” said Sebastian Corbisiro, FSP Project Manager at INL.
“Abundant energy will be an important factor in space exploration in the future,” said Jim Reuter, deputy director of NASA’s Space Technology Mission in Washington, DC, which is funding the power generation project by NASA. “I anticipate that fission power generation systems will be very beneficial to our plans for electrical architectures on the moon and Mars and will even lead to innovative applications here on Earth.”
To the announcement of NASA and its partners
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