NASA Nuclear
The ability to produce energy on other planets will determine the colonization and reclamation of other planets, and we need to know how to generate airbags, create the basic conditions for life, and extend the devices on which energy exploration depends. NASA experts estimate the Mars campaign will need about 40 kilowatts of energy - enough to operate eight homes on Earth - and believe the best way to generate that energy is nuclear fission.
Over the past three years, NASA has funded the Kellopour project, which aims to develop a miniature, low-cost, expandable energy system for science and exploration.
The project's budget is about $ 15 million, and the agency will reveal the fruits of its work - a 1.9-meter generator designed to produce up to a kilowatt of electricity.
Despite the introduction of other alternatives to power generation, there is no better fission energy for this task. Solar energy, for example, requires astronauts to commit to areas that receive enough sunlight. "If you want to land on another planet, the energy of surface fission is a basic strategy," said Michel Rucker, an engineer at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
The Kellopur project represents the return of NASA's fission experiments after a break of more than 50 years. The Agency last operated a fission reactor in 1965, when it launched the SNAP project. The project resulted in radioactive thermal generators still being used for the operation of spacecraft today, as well as the nuclear-powered spacecraft Snape 10A, which ceased operating 43 days after being launched into space due to an electrical failure of one of its components.
Reclamation of Mars
Stephen Hawking warned that the Earth would not be viable for long, so finding an alternative habitat for humanity was crucial. The issue of saving energy outside our planet is one of the biggest issues we face as the Red Planet is our future home.
SPACE X, led by Elon Mask, is contributing to the development of space transportation linked to cosmic migration, developing detailed plans and working on larger-than-ever spacecraft for use on Mars.
Several solutions have been proposed to help us generate a life-friendly atmosphere. The DARPA is considering the use of bacteria that would form algae to warm the atmosphere and increase its thickness. NASA earlier this year explained how to generate a magnetic field similar to the Earth's field around Mars in a future vision of planetary science 2050. »
If we move successfully to another planet, we have to answer these questions and hundreds of other questions, such as how diseases respond to space, and the effect of the new planet on reproduction. Estimates vary as to how long it will take, some of them expected to happen in decades, and others expect to be delayed for centuries. Let us hope that it will happen sooner rather than later if Stephen Hawking's predictions are confirmed.
Sources: Space.com, NASA, Universe Today