by Three companies will demonstrate their potential to power lunar infrastructure using nuclear fission systems, according to new joint NASA contracts announced Tuesday (June 21).
NASA and the US Department of Energy have selected three design concept proposals that the government hopes can be ready for use on the moon in the late 2020s, to support NASA’s lunar exploration Artemis program. the space agency.
NASA also sees these contracts, valued at $5 million each, as potentially useful for the exploration of Mars and other destinations in deeper space.
“The development of these early designs will help us lay the groundwork to power our long-term human presence on other worlds,” Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s space technology mission directorate, said in a news release from NASA. the agency. (opens in a new tab).
Related: The US military wants to demonstrate new nuclear power systems in space by 2027
The selected teams are led by Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse and IX (a joint venture of Intuitive Machines and X-Energy). Its goal over the next 12 months is to “provide NASA with critical industry information that can lead to the joint development of a full-flight certified fission power system,” the agency stated.
These are the Phase 1 prizes; NASA did not outline in the press release what the timeline would be for a Phase 2 contract, if that is part of the plan.
The newly announced contracts join a rapidly growing group of nuclear space initiatives, primarily on the military side, to further the US government’s work in lunar exploration and deep space in general.
On May 17, for example, the US Defense Innovation Unit announced two prototype contracts for spacecraft propulsion and nuclear power, with the goal of having an orbital flight demonstration by 2027.
And on May 4, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the next stage of a project to design, develop and assemble a nuclear thermal rocket engine for an Earth orbit flight demonstration. in 2026.
While the US military does this work to monitor commercial and government activities in cislunar space, NASA is also looking at nuclear opportunities for manned exploration.
For example, NASA’s fiscal year 2023 budget request, which has yet to be approved by Congress, includes $15 million (opens in a new tab) to support nuclear propulsion. The agency is also collaborating with DARPA’s Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program, which aims to develop a nuclear thermal propulsion system for use in Earth-Moon space.
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