Pingie: HTTP:: Barrel Sized Nuclear Reactors Will Power Lunar Bases

HTTP:: Barrel Sized Nuclear Reactors Will Power Lunar Bases
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Even before three independent spacecraft confirmed the existence of water-ice on the Moon, the American space agency, NASA, had plans of someday going to the lunar surface and establishing a permanent research base there. In order to make this a reality, a sustainable, durable, compact and light-weight power source was needed, and nuclear power was the first on the list of options. However, mounting a nuclear reactor on the natural satellite was considered impossible, so scientists proceeded to miniaturize the devices, until they brought them down to the size of a trash can. In the past years, three separate studies that have taken place at different NASA research centers and at a national laboratory in the US have demonstrated what officials have termed “key technologies” for the development of compact, nuclear fission-based reactors, suitable for space explorations, and off-world settlements. “The recent tests bear out that Fission surface power system could be an!
important source of energy for exploration on the Moon and Mars. This power system could provide an abundant source of reliable, cost-effective energy and may be used anywhere on the lunar surface,” Project Manager for Nuclear Systems Mike Houts, from the Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Alabama, says.
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http://news.softpedia.com/news/Barrel-Sized-Nuclear-Reactors-Will-Power-Lunar-Bases-123471.shtml
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