Rolls-Royce nuclear engine

Rolls-Royce has received an additional $6 million in funding from the UK space agency to develop essential technology for a micro nuclear reactor that could one day power lunar bases and power spacecraft.

This story reminds us of the 1969 science fiction film, Doppelgänger, where the Hero, upon docking his spaceship in orbit, is greeted by the Rolls-Royce logo on the nuclear rocket engines. More than five decades later, this cinematic prediction is getting closer. to reality, while Rolls-Royce advances with its plans for the space micro nuclear reactor, which will among other things be able to power spacecraft propulsion systems.

The latest award from the UK Space Agency brings the total funding for the project to around 11 million, according to Rolls-Royce the entire system design will be completed in 18 months with the help of academic collaborators from the University of Oxford and the University of Benger.

The first orbital test of the reactor is planned for before the end of the decade, with the testing of a lunar version a few years later, the goal of the micro reactor is to create a dense, reliable and extremely portable energy source, not only for exploration long-term and scientific missions on the moon and in deep space, but also as a marketable system for customers in space and terrestrial applications.

The need for a nuclear reactor is due to the fact that conventional solar energy, fuel cells and batteries are suitable only for short periods or are intermittent in generating power, and do not produce as much energy and increasing amounts will be needed. ever greater over the next century.

The microreactor is much smaller, more streamlined and portable than an SMR small modular reactor, while the SMR generates 0.5 gw of power and needs an area the size of two football fields for all its equipment, the microreactor produces 1 to 10 mw and is small enough to be placed in the back of a truck, this means it can be used on a planetary base, moved from one location to another or even power a Rover indefinitely.

The microreactor is fed with pallets made of layers of enriched uranium or plutonium, carbon and ceramics placed in tubes in a geometric graphite core that helps regulate the nuclear reaction, conducts the heat of the fuel and acts as a passive safety control, Custom heat exchangers make the reactor lightweight and move the heat to where it can be converted into useful energy.

This energy has numerous applications including bases on the moon or sea, powering space stations and deep space vehicles, and for nuclear propulsion systems such as ion thrusters or direct thermal nuclear rockets.

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