British luxury car maker Rolls-Royce has secured funding from the UK Space Agency to develop a nuclear reactor that could serve as a long-term power source for moon bases, The Guardian reported.
The British Space Agency (UKSA) has said it will invest a significant amount of money in Rolls-Royce’s plan to produce nuclear energy on the moon. In a statement, the UKSA explained how Rolls-Royce researchers had been working on a microreactor program.” to develop technology that will provide the energy humans need to live and work on the moon “.
The British space agency awarded Rolls-Royce Holdings £2.9 million, sor about 3.3 million euros, according to a press release from the agency. This isn’t the first time Rolls-Royce has embarked on such projects, as the automaker had already successfully tested the world’s first hydrogen-powered aircraft engine recently.
Rolls-Royce wants to build a nuclear reactor for the moon
Rolls-Royce indicates in its press release that the financing will be used specifically study the fuel the reactor will use to generate heatto study the means of transferring this heat and to evaluate the technologies needed to convert this heat into electricity.
Once installed on the next lunar base, to be built during the Artemis program, the reactor could be used to power rovers, communications systems and science experiments. Rolls-Royce hopes that the nuclear reactor will be ready to be sent to the moon in 2029.
” As we prepare to see men return to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, we support exciting research like this Lunar Modular Reactor with Rolls-Royce to develop new energy sources for a lunar base said George Freeman, minister of state at the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, in the UK Space Agency press release.
The partnership with Rolls-Royce comes just two weeks after the European Space Agency announced $62 million in funding for UK companies to develop communications and navigation services for missions to the moon. as part of the European Space Agency’s Moonlight program.
