credit, Nassa
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- author, Georgina Ranard
- Wrap, BBC news science correspondent
The US Space Agency, NASA, will accelerate plans to build a nuclear reactor on the surface of the moon by 2030, according to the American press.
According to the political news site, NASA's temporary president stated similar plans from China and Russia, and said that these two countries “can announce an exclusion zone” on the moon.
But there are still doubts about the realistic goals and the timetable, taking into account the recent discounts in the NASA budget, and the concern of some scientists who have geopolitical interests behind the plan.
“To properly apply this critical technology, which is able to support the future lunar economy, with high power generation in Mars and enhancing our national security in space, it is necessary that the agency act quickly.”
Duffy has requested proposals from companies to build a reactor capable of generating at least 100 kilowatts of energy, which is relatively little. For comparison, the model wind turbines generate between 2 to 3 megawatts.
“A new moon race”
The idea of building a nuclear reactor on the moon is not very new. By 2022, NASA signed three contracts worth $ 5 million with companies to show a reactor.
In May this year, China and Russia announced that they were planning to build an automated nuclear power plant on the surface of the moon until 2035.
Many scientists agree that this will be the best – or perhaps the only – a way to provide continuous energy on the moon.
The moon's day is four weeks on Earth, and it consists of two weeks of continuous sunlight and two weeks of darkness. This makes adopting solar energy a great challenge.
“Even building modest satellite habitats to accommodate a small crew will require generating megawat scale. Batter and solar batteries alone cannot meet this demand,” suggests Sungwoo Lim, a teacher in space applications, exploration and devices at Sari University.
He says: “The nuclear energy is not only desirable, but it is inevitable.”
credit, CNSA/Clep
Lionel Wilson, a professor of planetary science at the University of Lancaster, believes that it is possible to technically install reactors on the moon by 2030, “as long as there is a commitment to the necessary funding”, and indicates that there are already projects for smaller reactors.
“It is just a question of enough artemis to build infrastructure on the surface of the moon there,” he says, referring to the NASEMis space program, which aims to send people and equipment to the moon.
There are also some security problems.
“The launch of radioactive materials across the Earth's atmosphere brings safety concerns. You must have a special license to do this, but this cannot be overcome,” says Simyon Barber, a planet science expert at the Open University.
Duffy's guideline principle was a surprise after NASA's latest disturbance, due to Trump's announcement of 24 % discounts in the agency's 2026 budget.
This includes discounts in a large number of scientific programs, such as Mars sample OdehWhich aims to bring samples from the surface of the planet to Earth.
Political interests
Scientists are also concerned that this declaration is driven by political interests in the new international race.
“It seems that we are returning to the old days of the first space race, which, from a scientific point of view, is somewhat disappointing,” says Barber.
“The competition can create innovation, but if there is a narrower focus on the national interest and in an attempt to create property, the risk of losing the greatest panorama is the exploitation of the solar system.”
It seems that the US Secretary of Transport's comments on the possibility of China and Russia “announce that the exclusion zone” on the surface of the moon indicates an agreement called Artemis Accords.
By 2020, seven countries signed an agreement to define principles on how to cooperate on the surface of the moon.
The document includes security areas called, which must be established on the operations and equipment that are installed on the moon.
“If you build a nuclear reactor or any other type of base on the moon, you can claim that there is a safety area around it, because you have equipment there,” Parbber explains.
“For some people, this is equivalent to saying,” We have this piece of moon, let's work here and you cannot enter. “
Barber notes that there are still obstacles to overcoming them before installing a nuclear reactor on the surface of the moon for human use.
NASA's Artemis 3 aims, for example, to send humans to the moon in 2027, but it faced a series of financing and financing of uncertainty.
“If you have a nuclear energy for a rule, but there is no way to bring people and equipment there, this is not much,” he added.
He concluded that “the plans do not seem to be well integrated at the present time.”
