NASA and the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) “are seeking proposals from nuclear and space industry leaders to develop innovative technologies for a fission surface power (FSP) system for lunar power applications,” the two agencies announced in a Nov. 19th press release. The FSP project aims “to establish a durable, high-power, sun-independent power source for NASA missions on the moon by the end of the decade, as well as potential subsequent missions. The proposal request targets the initial system design,” they add. Design proposals must be submitted by Feb. 19, 2022.
According to INL Fission Surface Power Project leader Sebastian Corbisiero, “the feedback and enthusiasm we continue to see for space nuclear power systems has been very exciting, and understandably so. Providing a reliable, high-power system on the moon is a vital next step in human space exploration, and achieving it is within our grasp.”
Associate Administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate Jim Reuter is cited on how “plentiful energy will be key to future space exploration,” and that these fission surface power systems can “greatly benefit our plans for power architectures for the Moon and Mars and even drive innovation for uses here on Earth.”
As EIR reported last September, NASA had announced last August that it was seeking proposals for the development of a 10-kW fission power system that could be placed on the Moon as soon as 2027, and companies were already working to do so, with General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems reporting in early September that it had, in fact, “delivered a design concept of a Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) reactor to power future astronaut missions to Mars for a NASA-funded study.” [https://larouchepub.com/pr/2020/20200914_nasa.html]
This latest announcement appears to broaden the net of those working on the project, and sets a deadline by which companies must submit their ideas.
