Nuclear fission at lunar bases

The North American company Lockheed Martin is working together with NASA and the United States Department of Energy to develop a nuclear fission system that could be installed directly on the surface of the Moon.

The project is part of the program called Fusion Surface Power FSP and foresees compact reactors capable of generating between 5 and 10 kW in the first missions with future evolution towards systems of 25, 50 and even 100 kW. It may not seem like much, but in the lunar environment that is enormous.

The reason for carrying the Fusion is simple, on the moon, day and night do not last 24 hours, each complete cycle takes around 29 Earth days, which means that a lunar night can last 2 whole weeks. During this period, the temperature can drop below negative 170º and the solar panels simply stop working.

In regions near the poles, where there is ice and other important resources, some areas remain permanently in shadow, without a continuous energy source, no permanent base can exist, which is why the nuclear solution returned to the center of space plans.

A small reactor of 5 to 10 kW would already be enough to keep one half warm, charge rovers and power life support systems during the lunar night, but the objective goes much further, for an economy to exist outside of Earth, it will be necessary to produce oxygen, fuel and materials directly in space using resources from the Moon itself and that requires constant energy.

According to Lockheit, the strategy is to start with smaller systems to reduce risks and then evolve into power networks capable of sustaining full industrial operations. Projects like these show that the technological race has become strategic; today entire countries compete for leadership in artificial intelligence, robotics and space exploration.

And perhaps the clearest sign of this new era is when world leaders begin to visit robot factories as if they were power plants or military bases.

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