A key part of the discussion centers on the immense energy density of nuclear power compared to conventional methods, which makes it especially valuable for long-duration space missions, such as to Mars or beyond.
A key part of the discussion centers on the immense energy density of nuclear power compared to conventional methods, which makes it especially valuable for long-duration space missions, such as to Mars or beyond.
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We already have nuclear devices in space, right? I thought the current mars rover has one to power and also warm the electronics.
They do need to be careful though as in the event of a major malfunction any explosion has the potential to be a dirty nuclear bomb.
The manned development of the solar system will hardly be possible without nuclear drives. We humans cannot fly through the interplanetarian space for years on the journey to our destination, as the spatial probes do. Why did nature give us elements like uranium and thorium? Definitely not to banish you from our economic cycle. A few months to Jupiter, survive the cold moon night, the shot of simple probes to our neighboring stars. This is exactly what a nuclear reactor can do. It saves huge amounts of fuel for large rockets and spaceships that have to brake at high speed.
Funny, isn’t it.
So far every time someone wanted to demonstrate how powerful and power dense a nuclear reactor on Mars would be, it turned out photovoltaic systems deliver more kW/kg. Even including the batteries.
Hate to have to say this, but with geopolitical tensions skyrocketing, this is probably not a good time to be drafting plans to launch operational nuclear reactors into LEO.
The US is completely losing it frankly, and until (if) cooler heads prevail, we need to do everything we can to minimize or prevent the militarization of space. Just one real battle in that domain will cripple global orbital infrastructure, and possibly even cut us off from LEO for decades.
It’s tricky because the biggest uses of a nuclear reactor in space in the near future would be in the 10-50 kWe range, but those have some serious mass or lifetime power penalties if you don’t use Highly Enriched Uranium – which is very hard to get if you’re not a nuclear submarine or aircraft carrier. That’s not really an issue for a planet-side base, but it is a big one for a space probe.