NASA has successfully tested components for a nuclear fission system it calls KRUSTY and officials said Thursday that full-power tests planned for March could clear the way for long-duration missions to Mars and other destinations.
Developed under the space agency’s Kilopower project, the new power system is built around a uranium-235 reactor core about the size of a paper towel roll.
A key hurdle for any lengthy human mission 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 meet the various energy needs 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.
While the compact nature of KRUSTY (Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology) is one of its most notable features, it would still provide ample power for spacecraft and future habitats.
The new system could potentially supply the power human crews on the Martian surface would need to energize habitats and run processing equipment to transform resources such as ice on the planet into oxygen, water and fuel, NASA said.
If it proves successful, each Kilopower system could provide up to 10 kilowatts of electricity—enough to power two average homes— and allow astronauts to operate in the darkness of craters or in other places where sunlight cannot reach solar panels.
When that day might come, however, is anyone’s guess. While the Trump administration signed a new space directive in December, actual dates to deliver astronauts to the surface of the moon or Mars have yet to be proposed.