Miami-Based City Labs Achieves a First for Commercial Nuclear Power in Space

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

"The BOHR mission serves as a pathfinder for future nuclear-powered spacecraft."

The proliferation of nuclear power in space got a little more real Tuesday with the launch of a small satellite developed by a Florida-based company specializing in nuclear micro-power technology.

It's a long way from launching a bona fide nuclear reactor, a breakthrough that could help power a permanent Moon base and efficiently drive rockets throughout the Solar System. But you have to start somewhere.

The satellite from Miami-based City Labs is named BOHR, short for Betavoltaic Orbital High-Reliability, and it launched on a SpaceX rideshare mission Tuesday alongside 80 other payloads. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket released the BOHR satellite into an orbit between 350 and 400 miles (nearly 600 km) in altitude.

City Labs bills the BOHR mission as "the world's first commercial nuclear-powered satellite and first nuclear CubeSat." CubeSats are modest in scale, and images released by City Labs suggest BOHR is built on a "1U" CubeSat platform, a cubical design measuring about the same size as a softball. BOHR's power source is a nuclear betavoltaic battery that generates electricity from the decay of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen.

"This is a historic step for commercial nuclear power in space," said Peter Cabauy, CEO of City Labs, in a statement. "BOHR demonstrates that safe, compact, and regulatory-approved nuclear power systems are ready for routine commercial deployment. This capability enables persistent, always-on payload operations that are not constrained by sunlight or battery life."

City Labs will use its experimental NanoTritium power generator in demonstration mode to supply electricity to a payload onboard the BOHR CubeSat. The spacecraft itself uses conventional solar power for regular operations, the company said. Betavoltaic batteries are best suited for low-power applications that require a reliable, long-duration source of electricity. These use cases include remote terrestrial sensors-such as in undersea or polar locations-and instrumentation for secure communications. City Labs is also studying the use of its NanoTritium technology to power implantable medical devices.

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