White House Launches Plan for a Nuclear Power System on the Moon
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:
White House Launches Plan for a Nuclear Power System on the Moon:
The White House released a directive Wednesday posing high-level policy goals and explicit directions for multiple federal agencies to drive the development of space-based nuclear systems and technologies.
Space Policy Directive 6, titled the "National Strategy for Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion" and deemed SPD-6 for short, sets a strategic roadmap for several ambitious aims-including to demonstrate a fission power system on the surface of the moon by the mid- to late- 2020s. Those systems operate by splitting uranium atoms inside nuclear reactors, to generate heat that's converted to electricity.
[...] [S]enior administration officials said space nuclear power and propulsion, or SNPP systems "are fundamentally enabling technologies" for creating a sustainable presence on the moon as intended through NASA's Artemis missions, and eventually, enabling deeper space missions to Mars and beyond.
"Nuclear power in a variety of ways is going to be important for the moon. As we look towards having a more robust science and more permanent human presence there on the lunar surface, then the fission reactor sizes that we are talking about are needed," an official said. "So, I think we start with putting a power reactor on the moon. That will in turn support a surface architecture."
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