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posted by Fnord666 on Monday January 29 2018, @04:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the next-time-go-for-megapower dept.

Initial tests of NASA's Kilopower nuclear power system have been successful, and full-power testing will be done in March. Each Kilopower unit is expected to provide between 1 kW to 10 kW of electric power:

Months-long testing began in November at the energy department's Nevada National Security Site, with an eye toward providing energy for future astronaut and robotic missions in space and on the surface of Mars, the moon or other solar system destinations.

A key hurdle for any long-term colony on the surface of a planet or moon, as opposed to NASA's six short lunar surface visits from 1969 to 1972, is possessing a power source strong enough to sustain a base but small and light enough to allow for transport through space. "Mars is a very difficult environment for power systems, with less sunlight than Earth or the moon, very cold nighttime temperatures, very interesting dust storms that can last weeks and months that engulf the entire planet," said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. "So Kilopower's compact size and robustness allows us to deliver multiple units on a single lander to the surface that provides tens of kilowatts of power," Jurczyk added.

[...] Lee Mason, NASA's principal technologist for power and energy storage, said Mars has been the project's main focus, noting that a human mission likely would require 40 to 50 kilowatts of power. The technology could power habitats and life-support systems, enable astronauts to mine resources, recharge rovers and run processing equipment to transform resources such as ice on the planet into oxygen, water and fuel. It could also potentially augment electrically powered spacecraft propulsion systems on missions to the outer planets.

NASA's next Mars mission is InSight, a stationary lander scheduled to launch in May. It will use two MegaFlex solar arrays from Orbital ATK. NASA's Mars 2020 rover is scheduled to launch in July 2020. It will use 4.8 kg of plutonium dioxide to provide no more than 110 Watts of power.

The Juno mission is the first mission to Jupiter to use solar panels. Juno uses 72 square meters of solar panels to generate a maximum of just 486 Watts at Jupiter. Mars receives about 12 times more solar radiation per m2 than Jupiter. The New Horizons mission to Pluto and Cassini–Huygens mission to Saturn both used radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). Cassini used three RTGs originally rated for 300 W each. A spare Cassini RTG was used for New Horizons, which provided 245.7 W at launch (~200 W by the Pluto encounter).

The Fission System Gateway to Abundant Power for Exploration

Also at NASA and Popular Science.

Previously: NASA's Kilopower Project Testing a Nuclear Stirling Engine


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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Monday January 29 2018, @06:05PM (6 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 29 2018, @06:05PM (#629910) Journal

    "Mars is a very difficult environment for power systems, with less sunlight than Earth or the moon, very cold nighttime temperatures, very interesting dust storms that can last weeks and months that engulf the entire planet," said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.

    This seems like a powerful argument for Clean Coal. I can understand why this might not work on a spacecraft (although SpaceX should be mandated to at least try, and then try harder). But it should work just fine on a planetary body such as the moon or mars. We'll take the coal, clean it all up, and ship it to where our space colonies need it.

    On the moon it would be best, because the lunar atmosphere is so clear that you would almost think it is not there. And clean coal would help keep it that way.

    On Mars, clean coal would help preserve the breathable atmosphere. Republican VP Dan Quayle said it best: "Mars is essentially in the same orbit. … Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe." (yes, that is a REAL quote)

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday January 29 2018, @06:23PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 29 2018, @06:23PM (#629920) Journal
    So what brought this attempt at humor on?

    And if you're sending carbon to the Moon, better add some hydrogen to it, say like polyethylene. Lowers the density, but hydrogen combined with the prevalent oxygen (in the form of metal oxides and silica) gets you water. Of course, we'd need to start worrying about plastic waste in our Lunar mares (of the ocean kind not the horse kind).
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Monday January 29 2018, @06:41PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday January 29 2018, @06:41PM (#629933)

    I was going to propose the Mars pipeline, so we could get a cheap, reliable supply of oil there. We should fund a study right away. Obviously, it's going to be the longest pipeline ever built - so it will need to be the biggest study ever funded.

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  • (Score: 2) by istartedi on Monday January 29 2018, @09:48PM (1 child)

    by istartedi (123) on Monday January 29 2018, @09:48PM (#630045) Journal

    I could have sworn that was a GWB quote, but apparently it is indeed Quayle.
    Wikiquote claims it's from a 1989 CNN interview.

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    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday January 29 2018, @10:12PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 29 2018, @10:12PM (#630058) Journal

      Yep. That was the VP of GWB's father. There was a whole book of Quayle Quotables. And were they ever funny and many.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @11:24PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @11:24PM (#630093)

    What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday January 30 2018, @03:23PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 30 2018, @03:23PM (#630395) Journal

      Not only did I lose my mind, but I LOST MY COMB! OMG, where is my comb! i dropped around here somewhere.

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