In what is likely to be one of the last space policy initiatives of his administration, President Donald Trump issued a guideline containing a roadmap for nuclear applications outside the earth.
Space Policy 6, published December 16, calls on NASA and other federal agencies to promote the development of nuclear propulsion systems in space and a fission power plant on the moon.
“Nuclear power and propulsion in space are a fundamental technology for American space missions to Mars and beyond,” said Scott Pace, executive secretary of the National Space Council, in a White House press release. “The United States intends to remain a leader among space-exploring nations and deploy nuclear technology safely, safely and sustainably in space.”
Space-based nuclear energy is not exactly a new idea: NASA and the Atomic Energy Commission already considered a thermal nuclear propulsion system as part of the NERVA project in the 1970s – a concept in which propellants would have been heated with a nuclear reactor.
Another type of nuclear power that converts the heat from radioactive decay into electricity has been used with hardware ranging from Apollo lunar surface experiments to the Curiosity rover on Mars. (NASA’s Perseverance rover, slated to land on Mars in February, also has a radioisotope power system.)
NASA once considered putting a nuclear electric propulsion system on a spacecraft known as the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter. However, this mission was canceled in 2005. Now there is renewed interest in missions that require more electricity than can be generated by solar panels – and that is stimulating interest in nuclear power for space applications.
At a session of the National Space Council held in Washington, DC last year, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said that nuclear propulsion systems would be “absolutely groundbreaking” for space travel. The security policies established at this meeting form the basis for the new policy.
In response to the release of Space Policy 6, Bridenstine hailed nuclear power as a technology that enables NASA’s Artemis program to set up a base on the Moon’s South Pole in the 2020s.
“NASA strongly supports the White House’s continued leadership in the agency’s Artemis program, which includes the landing of the first woman and next man on the moon in 2024,” Bridenstine said in a press release. “On the moon, we will prepare for new scientific and human missions that will penetrate deeper into the solar system. SPD-6 supports the agency’s efforts to develop affordable, safe, and reliable nuclear systems, including technologies that enable operations on other worlds to operate continuously and advance future human missions to Mars. “
NASA is working with the Department of Energy and commercial partners to design a nuclear power plant that can generate 10 kilowatts of electricity on the moon. The demonstration power plant, which would use the technology developed for NASA’s Kilopower project, could become a reality in the late 2020s.
It’s not clear how the White House change would affect plans for nuclear power in space – but for what it’s worth, President-elect Joe Biden sees terrestrial nuclear power as one of the ways to alleviate the climate crisis.
This is an adapted version of a report published on Cosmic Log. Mission: An artist’s conception shows a Mars transit habitat with a nuclear propulsion system. Photo credit: NASA
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