Nasa has successfully tested a nuclear reactor they will send to space.

The agency hopes that the breakthrough can allow future missions to the Mars and Moon to be powered with nuclear energy.

Tests conducted by Nasa seemed to suggest that the space-bound nuclear reactor was even more successful than it had thought.

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Shape Created with Sketch. Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Show all 30 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Nasa's most stunning pictures of space 1/30 Solar Flare An image from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a 200,000 mile long solar filament ripping through the Sun's corona in September 2013 Nasa 2/30 Nasa Celebrates 50 Years of Spacewalking For 50 years, NASA has been "suiting up" for spacewalking. 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Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset Nasa 7/30 Black Hole Friday Nasa celebrated Black Friday by looking into space instead — sharing pictures of black holes Nasa 8/30 NuSTAR X-rays stream off the sun in this image showing observations from by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, overlaid on a picture taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Nasa 9/30 Cassiopeia A c A false colour image of Cassiopeia A comprised with data from the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes and the Chandra X-Ray observatory Nasa 10/30 Orion Capsule splashes down The Orion capsule jetted off into space before heading back a few hours later — having proved that it can be used, one day, to carry humans to Mars Nasa 11/30 Earth Observations From Gemini IV in 1965 This photograph of the Florida Straits and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during the Gemini IV mission during orbit no. 19 in 1965. The Gemini IV crew conducted scientific experiments, including photography of Earth's weather and terrain, for the remainder of their four-day mission following Ed White's historic spacewalk on June 3 12/30 Frosty slopes of Mars This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. The image was taken by Nasa's HiRISE camera, which is mounted on its Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Nasa 13/30 Yellowstone from space NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this image of Yellowstone via his twitter account Nasa 14/30 Saturn This near-infrared color image shows a specular reflection, or sunglint, off of a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on Saturn's moon Titan Nasa 15/30 Worlds Apart Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both orbit Saturn, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" by moon standards (50 miles or 81 kilometers across) is elongated and irregular in shape. 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The image shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack Nasa 19/30 Morning Aurora From the Space Station Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station 20/30 Launch of History - Making STS-41G Mission in 1984 The Space Shuttle Challenger launches from Florida at dawn. On this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first U.S. woman to perform a spacewalk and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The crew of seven was the largest to fly on a spacecraft at that time, and STS-41G was the first flight to include two female astronauts 21/30 A Fresh Perspective on an Extraordinary Cluster of Galaxies Galaxy clusters are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerations of galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity 22/30 Hubble Sees a Galactic Sunflower The arrangement of the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63, seen here in an image from the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, recall the pattern at the center of a sunflower ESA/Hubble & NASA 23/30 Pluto image Four images from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with colour data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced colour global view of Pluto 24/30 Fresh Crater Near Sirenum Fossae Region of Mars The HiRISE camera aboard Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this closeup image of a "fresh" (on a geological scale, though quite old on a human scale) impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars. This impact crater appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta 25/30 Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way This Nasa Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way NASA & ESA 26/30 An Astronaut's View from Space Nasa astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on 2 September 2014 27/30 Giant Landform on Mars On Mars, we can observe four classes of sandy landforms formed by the wind, or aeolian bedforms: ripples, transverse aeolian ridges, dunes, and what are called “draa�? 28/30 Expedition 39 Landing A sokol suit helmet can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the spacecraft landed with Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan (NASA/Bill Ingalls) 29/30 Jupiter's Great Red Spot Viewed by Voyager I Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and perhaps the most majestic. Vibrant bands of clouds carried by winds that can exceed 400 mph continuously circle the planet's atmosphere 30/30 Chandra Observatory Sees a Heart in the Darkness This Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of the young star cluster NGC 346 highlights a heart-shaped cloud of 8 million-degree Celsius gas in the central region

Scientists said that it is the first step towards sending the Kilopower technology up unto space, so that fission can be used to power space exploration missions. The next step will be flight tests to see how such a system would perform in space, Nasa said.

In the future, the agency hopes that it can send the small power plant on missions to Mars and the Moon. On those long missions, it will be very difficult to provide energy for the operations and people involved using traditional techniques – but using a nuclear reactor will give huge amounts of energy without the need for refuelling.

It will be able to do so very safely because the fuel contained within it is very safe and only mildly radioactive until it is turned on. That will allow it to be carried into space without damaging the people or equipment that are flying with it.

Once it is turned on, however, it will give out safe and reliable power that can be used by people without needing much input, officials said during a press conference. That will be very important during long missions that will rely on having a dependable source of fuel.

"When we go to the moon and eventually on to Mars, we are likely going to need large power sources not dependent on the Sun," said James Reuter, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

Nasa also shared a photo of how such a system might look on the Moon. Engineers noted that it will require great expertise to set it up there, whether humans were there or not.

When the system is finished with – which could take hundreds of years – it will probably be left on the planet it has been taken to, such as Mars. But engineers stressed that the waste it puts out will be very contained, and so the area around it will not be contaminated.

Even aside from its use in space, the Kilopower system marks a major breakthrough for nuclear power. It is the first nuclear reactor of any kind in the US for 40 years, said Dave Poston from the National Nuclear Security Administration, which looks after the country's nuclear equipment.</s>NASA has said that it successfully demonstrated a new nuclear reactor power system that could enable crewed missions to the Moon, Mars and destinations beyond. NASA announced the results of the demonstration, called the Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY) experiment on Wednesday at its Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The Kilopower experiment was conducted at the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada National Security Site from November 2017 through March. Such a demonstration could pave the way for future Kilopower systems that power human outposts on the Moon and Mars, NASA said in a statement.

“Safe, efficient and plentiful energy will be the key to future robotic and human exploration,” said Jim Reuter of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington. “I expect the Kilopower project to be an essential part of lunar and Mars power architectures as they evolve,” Reuter said. Kilopower is a small, lightweight fission power system capable of providing up to 10 kilowatts of electrical power – enough to run several average households – continuously for at least 10 years. Four Kilopower units would provide enough power to establish an outpost.

The pioneering power system is ideal for the Moon, where power generation from sunlight is difficult because lunar nights are equivalent to 14 days on Earth, said Marc Gibson, lead Kilopower engineer at Glenn. “Kilopower gives us the ability to do much higher power missions, and to explore the shadowed craters of the Moon,” said Gibson. “When we start sending astronauts for long stays on the Moon and to other planets, that’s going to require a new class of power that we’ve never needed before.” The prototype power system uses a solid, cast uranium-235 reactor core, about the size of a paper towel roll.

Passive sodium heat pipes transfer reactor heat to high-efficiency Stirling engines, which convert the heat to electricity. The purpose of the recent experiment in Nevada was two-fold: to demonstrate that the system can create electricity with fission power, and to show the system is stable and safe no matter what environment it encounters, said David Poston of National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. “We threw everything we could at this reactor, in terms of nominal and off-normal operating scenarios and KRUSTY passed with flying colours,” said Poston.</s>Space scientists today revealed they have successfully tested the Kilopower portable nuclear power plant. It is hoped the miniature reactors will one day be launched into space to help mankind launch longer missions and explore other plants. And Kilopower technology could even power man colonies on other worlds – including Mars. Nuclear technology is needed so astronauts do not have to rely of solar power to fuel up their machines and spacecraft. NASA scientists revealed today they ran a full power test of the technology in March and hailed it as a success.

“We want a power source that can handle extreme environments,” James Reuter, administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said: "When we go to the Moon and eventually on to Mars, we are likely going to need large power sources not dependent on the Sun.” NASA has been testing the technology along with experts from the US Department of Energy and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Successful tests of the reactor now mean the space agency will have to flight test the device. Scientists will probing to make sure the device can still generate power as efficiently in space.

Earlier this year, NASA’s top energy scientist Lee Mason said: “We want a power source that can handle extreme environments. “Kilopower opens up the full surface of Mars, including the northern latitudes where water may reside. "On the Moon, Kilopower could be deployed to help search for resources in permanently shadowed craters.” Each one of the miniaturised rectors have provide enough power to run “several households” for up to 10 years.

NASA predicts just four of the Kilopower units could power an outpost on Mars. Dave Poston, chief reactor designer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, described the unit as the first fission reactor to be developed by the US in over 40 years. Kilpower’s team plans to conduct flight tests within the next 18 months to test its suitability for space travel. The reactor uses a six-inch shard of uranium-235 as fuel, as is described as low maintenance so astronauts do not have to be exposed to radiation.

NASA Glenn Research Center director Janet Kavandi said: "As we move further into the solar system, there will come a point where carrying all the materials needed or attempting to resupply becomes hazardous. "At this point, our explorers will need to be able to generate their own resources – like water, oxygen and rocket fuel.” US space exploration is increasing with big plans for outposts on the Moon and Mars – and US President Donald Trump’s plans for American “footprints on different worlds”. Scientists yesterday revealed hope for alien life on Mars as a joint European Space Agency and Roscosmos probe begins to investigate the Red Planet.</s>From November 2017 to March this year, NASA and the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have been conducting an experiment in Nevada to see how a nuclear reactor would fare with long-term use in adverse conditions.The reactor NASA tested is called Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY). It is a lightweight fission power system capable of producing 10 kilowatts of electricity continuously for at least ten years. That amount of power is, says NASA, enough to power several average homes, or in this case, a small planetary habitat.Power is generated by a solid, cast uranium-235 reactor core the size of a paper towel roll. Passive sodium heat pipes transfer reactor heat to high-efficiency Stirling engines, which convert the heat to electricity, according to the space the agency.Being small and powerful, the system could be easily transported to the Moon, where when deployed it will be capable of generating power without having to rely on the sun. That would be difficult to do anyway, since a lunar night is equivalent to 14 Earth days.The tests the reactor was subjected to included power reduction, failed engines and failed heat pipes.“We threw everything we could at this reactor, in terms of nominal and off-normal operating scenarios and KRUSTY passed with flying colors,” said David Poston, the chief reactor designer at NNSA’s Los Alamos facility.NASA plans to have the reactor flown into space in the near future, to see how it would cope with takeoff and zero-G. If that ends well, KRUSTY will find its way into habitats planned for the mid-term future on the Moon and Mars.</s>Setting up a colony on Mars will undoubtedly go down as one of humanity’s greatest achievements. Realizing that goal, however, presents a unique set of challenges.

Getting humans to our nearby celestial neighbor will be a tough task in its own right but once they get there, how will astronauts sustain life and possibly get back home? It’s a question experts have been working to answer for years and on Wednesday, we got one step closer to a viable solution.

NASA and the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have successfully demonstrated a miniature nuclear reactor power system that could one day be used in long-duration missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

Dubbed Kilopower, the small, lightweight fission system is able to provide up to 10 kilowatts of electrical power continuously for a minimum of 10 years. Pair a few units together and you’ve suddenly got enough power to establish an outpost, NASA says.

The prototype uses a solid, cast uranium-235 reactor core which is roughly the size of a paper towel roll. Reactor heat is transferred via passive sodium heat pipes to high-efficiency Stirling engines which convert the heat to electricity.

David Poston, the chief reactor designer at NNSA’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, said they threw everything they could at the reactor during testing and it passed with flying colors.

NASA said the project will remain a part of the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Game Changing Development program with the goal of transitioning to the Technology Demonstration Mission program in fiscal year 2020.</s>NASA has completed the building and testing of a compact nuclear fission reactor that can be packed into a spaceship for future space exploration and travel. It is called Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY). One reactor can produce enough power to run several average houses for up to 10 years.

Krusty has been under development for a few years now and extensive testing started in November of 2017, reports NASA. The system was put through the paces and the space agency said that the generator is safe to carry on board into space. "Safe, efficient and plentiful energy will be the key to future robotic and human exploration," said Jim Reuter, NASA's acting associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) in Washington. "I expect the Kilopower project to be an essential part of lunar and Mars power architectures as they evolve."

Krusty can provide about 10 kilowatts of power and the report says that four such systems will be sufficient to establish an outpost off-Earth. "Kilopower gives us the ability to do much higher power missions, and to explore the shadowed craters of the Moon," said Marc Gibson, lead Kilopower engineer at Glenn. "When we start sending astronauts for long stays on the Moon and to other planets, that's going to require a new class of power that we've never needed before."

The power plant uses a solid, cast, uranium-235 reactor core, notes the report. The core itself will only be as big as a roll of paper towels. Passive sodium heat transfer pipes will carry heat from the reactor to stirling engines which will generate power, explains NASA.

This project came as a result of collaboration between NASA and the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). David Poston, the chief reactor designer at NNSA's Los Alamos National Laboratory spoke of why the experiments on the reactor were conducted out in the Nevadan desert. It was a two-fold effort, notes the report- first, they needed to prove that this system actually works, and second, Krusty should be stable enough to take extensive abuse in any kind of harsh environment.

"We threw everything we could at this reactor, in terms of nominal and off-normal operating scenarios and Krusty passed with flying colors," said Poston.</s>NASA has successfully demonstrated the working of its Kilopower Nuclear Fission Reactor — a system designed to power bases on moon, Mars, and beyond and make deep-space exploration a reality.

The tests, dubbed Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY) experiment, were conducted at National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Nevada facility over last five months. Though the tech is still a prototype, it worked as the agency expected and generated electricity with fission power, while demonstrating signs of stability and safety.

“We threw everything we could at this reactor, in terms of nominal and off-normal operating scenarios and KRUSTY passed with flying colors,” David Poston, the chief reactor designer at NNSA’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, said in a NASA statement.

The small, lightweight system, according to the space agency, uses solid, cast uranium-235 as fuel, which undergoes fission reactions to generate heat and convert that into electricity. When fully developed, it should be able to generate 10 kilowatts of power, which is enough to run several households for up to 10 years.

During the recent tests, which were conducted in four phases, scientists and engineers at NASA checked how the whole thing worked and dealt with failures. In the first two powerless phases, they checked how every component of the system worked, while the next two phases, they heated the core and checked the complete functioning of the reactor.

As part of the final phase, scientists simulated a 28-hour long mission which included everything, from starting the reactor and ramping up its power to holding its operation and finally shutting it down. According to a Gizmodo report, the reactor produced an output greater than four kilowatts at temperatures going around 800 degrees Celsius with a whopping 35 percent power efficiency.

The experiment even included a few failure points — such as a sudden decrease in power, engine failure, or failure of heat pipes — but the system kept working despite those glitches.

“We put the system through its paces,” lead Kilopower engineer Marc Gibson said. “We understand the reactor very well, and this test proved that the system works the way we designed it to work. No matter what environment we expose it to, the reactor performs very well.”

That said, the nuclear reactor would be the key to the agency’s upcoming deep-space missions to Moon, Mars, and beyond.

“Safe, efficient and plentiful energy will be the key to future robotic and human exploration,” Jim Reuter, NASA’s acting associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) in Washington, said in the same statement. “I expect the Kilopower project to be an essential part of lunar and Mars power architectures as they evolve.”

As the tech is not dependent on solar energy, it is being seen as an essential element for lunar and Martian missions. On moon where nights are equal to 14 Earth days, the reactor could come handy enabling astronomers to explore shadowed craters, while on Mars it could provide power during prolonged "sunlight-reducing" dust storms or enable landing at high-northern latitudes where ice might be present.

For now, the agency will conduct additional risk-reduction activities on the reactor project to prepare it for future flight testing sometime in the future.</s>WASHINGTON, May 2, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA and the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have successfully demonstrated a new nuclear reactor power system that could enable long-duration crewed missions to the Moon, Mars and destinations beyond.

NASA announced the results of the demonstration, called the Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY) experiment, during a news conference Wednesday at its Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The Kilopower experiment was conducted at the NNSA's Nevada National Security Site from November 2017 through March.

"Safe, efficient and plentiful energy will be the key to future robotic and human exploration," said Jim Reuter, NASA's acting associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) in Washington. "I expect the Kilopower project to be an essential part of lunar and Mars power architectures as they evolve."

Kilopower is a small, lightweight fission power system capable of providing up to 10 kilowatts of electrical power - enough to run several average households - continuously for at least 10 years. Four Kilopower units would provide enough power to establish an outpost.

According to Marc Gibson, lead Kilopower engineer at Glenn, the pioneering power system is ideal for the Moon, where power generation from sunlight is difficult because lunar nights are equivalent to 14 days on Earth.

"Kilopower gives us the ability to do much higher power missions, and to explore the shadowed craters of the Moon," said Gibson. "When we start sending astronauts for long stays on the Moon and to other planets, that's going to require a new class of power that we've never needed before."

The prototype power system uses a solid, cast uranium-235 reactor core, about the size of a paper towel roll. Passive sodium heat pipes transfer reactor heat to high-efficiency Stirling engines, which convert the heat to electricity.

According to David Poston, the chief reactor designer at NNSA's Los Alamos National Laboratory, the purpose of the recent experiment in Nevada was two-fold: to demonstrate that the system can create electricity with fission power, and to show the system is stable and safe no matter what environment it encounters.



"We threw everything we could at this reactor, in terms of nominal and off-normal operating scenarios and KRUSTY passed with flying colors," said Poston.

The Kilopower team conducted the experiment in four phases. The first two phases, conducted without power, confirmed that each component of the system behaved as expected. During the third phase, the team increased power to heat the core incrementally before moving on to the final phase. The experiment culminated with a 28-hour, full-power test that simulated a mission, including reactor startup, ramp to full power, steady operation and shutdown.

Throughout the experiment, the team simulated power reduction, failed engines and failed heat pipes, showing that the system could continue to operate and successfully handle multiple failures.

"We put the system through its paces," said Gibson. "We understand the reactor very well, and this test proved that the system works the way we designed it to work. No matter what environment we expose it to, the reactor performs very well."

The Kilopower project is developing mission concepts and performing additional risk reduction activities to prepare for a possible future flight demonstration. The project will remain a part of the STMD's Game Changing Development program with the goal of transitioning to the Technology Demonstration Mission program in Fiscal Year 2020.

Such a demonstration could pave the way for future Kilopower systems that power human outposts on the Moon and Mars, including missions that rely on In-situ Resource Utilization to produce local propellants and other materials.

The Kilopower project is led by Glenn, in partnership with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and NNSA, including its Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nevada National Security Site and Y-12 National Security Complex.

For more information about the Kilopower project, including images and video, visit:

For more information about NASA's investments in space technology, visit:</s>KRUSTY, as the experiment was called, proved that NASA's Kilopower nuclear space reactor can generate up to 10 kilowatts of electrical power continuously for at least 10 years.

NASA has big things in store in terms of future space exploration. Although the U.S. space agency recently pulled the plug on its robotic lunar Resource Prospector mission, it hasn’t given up on the goal to send astronauts back to the moon. At the same time, a manned mission to Mars is in the cards for the 2030s.

Regardless of their destination, future space exploration missions will require an efficient and dependable energy source, especially during long-term ventures in outer space.

To make this happen, NASA and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the U.S. Department of Energy started working on a pioneering power system last year, known as the Kilopower project.

This enterprise aimed to build a safe and affordable nuclear space reactor that would provide enough energy for long-term manned space missions. Initiated in November, the project concluded this March and NASA is finally ready to announce the results.

According to a news release issued today, the Kilopower project was a major success. NASA and NNSA tested the nuclear fission system in a four-phase experiment dubbed KRUSTY (Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology), which proved the space reactor is fully operational and capable of withstanding any hurdle.

The KRUSTY experiment, held at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, revealed that the Kilopower system is capable of generating up to 10 kilowatts of electrical power continuously for at least a decade. According to NASA, four Kilopower units would be enough to provide sufficient electrical energy in order to establish a lunar or a Martian outpost.

“When we start sending astronauts for long stays on the Moon and to other planets, that’s going to require a new class of power that we’ve never needed before,” said Marc Gibson, lead Kilopower engineer at Glenn.

The nuclear fission system operates on a solid, cast uranium-235 reactor core, roughly the size of a paper towel roll, from which passive sodium heat pipes transfer heat to high-efficiency Stirling engines that convert it to electricity.

NASA expects that the Kilopower nuclear fission system will become a valuable asset in any future space exploration trips, especially manned or robotic missions to the moon. Since solar-powered energy sources would be short-lived during such a mission, given that lunar nights are equivalent to 14 days on Earth, having a nuclear energy source would be particularly beneficial to a lunar outpost, Gibson pointed out in the news release.

The KRUSTY demonstration put the Kilopower system through a series of four tests, culminating a 28-hour simulation of an actual space mission, that tested the full power of the nuclear reactor. The experiment also investigated how the system would fare in the event of technical malfunctions, such as power reduction, failed engines, and failed heat pipes.

Chief reactor designer David Poston, from the NNSA’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, revealed that the Kilopower nuclear fission system proved to be stable and safe in all those circumstances.

The project team is currently in the process of developing mission concepts and taking additional risk reduction measures to prepare the Kilopower system for a possible future flight demonstration, NASA disclosed in the news release.</s>NASA and the Los Alamos National laboratory have successfully tested a prototype power system called "Kilopower," designed for lunar and Mars manned missions.

The revolutionary space fission power system could provide up to 10 kilowatts of electrical power, which would be enough to operate several average households constantly for at least ten years.

Four Kilopower units would provide enough power to establish an outpost. The biggest advantage of this power system is that it can provide abundant energy anywhere humans need.

“We want a power source that can handle extreme environments,” Lee Mason, NASA’s principal technologist for power and energy storage said.

“Kilopower opens up the full surface of Mars, including the northern latitudes where water may reside. On the Moon, Kilopower could be deployed to help search for resources in permanently shadowed craters,” Mason said.

Kilopower uses uranium-235 for fuel, in addition to the reactor itself; the unit includes a Stirling engine and an alternator.

Earlier, NASA’s Deputy Head of Manned Programs, William Gerstenmaier, confirmed on April 20 that the US is designing a Lunar Orbital Platform (LOP) — Gateway, a near-moon orbital station.

According to Gerstenmaier, a crew of four astronauts will begin to work on LOP in 2025. With the help of the LOP, the agency plans to study various aspects of landing a person on the moon and also to understand whether it is possible to use the station as an intermediate base for Martian missions. For the LOP-Gateway program, the Orion ship, created by Lockheed Martin, will be used.
NASA announces it has completed its first full-power test of the Kilopower nuclear reactor for space. NASA intends to use the technology to power exploration missions to the Moon and Mars.