Rolls-Royce Gets $6M for Nuclear Space Reactor Development

Rolls-Royce has received an additional £4.8 million (US$6.2 million) from the UK Space Agency (UKSA) to develop critical technology for a nuclear micro-reactor, potentially powering lunar bases and spacecraft propulsion in the future.

In the 1969 science fiction film Doppelganger (also known as Journey to the Far Side of the Sun), the hero docks with his interplanetary spaceship and is greeted by the Rolls-Royce logo on the ship’s nuclear rocket engines.

Over fifty years later, this cinematic vision is edging closer to reality as Rolls-Royce advances its space nuclear Micro-Reactor plans, which could power spacecraft propulsion systems among other applications.

UK Space Agency Grant Boosts Funding for Rolls-Royce Micro-Reactor Project

The recent grant from the UK Space Agency’s National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP) significantly advances funding towards the £9.1 million (US$11.7 million) projected total cost of the project.

Rolls-Royce states that the complete system design will be finalized within 18 months, with support from academic partners at the University of Oxford and Bangor University. The first orbital test of the reactor is planned for before the decade’s end, followed by testing of a Moon version a few years later.

A Compact and Versatile Power Solution for Space and Earth

The Micro Reactor aims to provide a compact, reliable, and highly portable power source suitable for long-term exploration and scientific missions on the Moon and deep space. It also serves as a marketable British technology for commercial applications in both space and on Earth.

A nuclear reactor is necessary because conventional power sources like solar energy, fuel cells, and batteries are either suitable only for short durations or have intermittent power output. Additionally, these methods produce relatively low amounts of energy, which will be increasingly required in greater quantities in the coming century.

Unlike a Small Modular Reactor (SMR), which generates 0.5 GW of power and requires a large area equivalent to two football fields, the Micro-Reactor is much smaller and more portable. It generates between 1 and 10 MW of power and is compact enough to be transported on a truck. This makes it versatile for use on planetary bases, transportable between locations, or even for powering rovers indefinitely.

Self-Sufficient Micro-Reactor

Completely self-sufficient, the Micro-Reactor is powered by pellets composed of layers of enriched uranium or plutonium, carbon, and ceramic.

These pellets are housed in tubes within a geometrical graphite core, which regulates the nuclear reaction, transfers heat from the fuel, and provides passive safety control. Custom heat exchangers make the reactor lightweight and efficiently transfer heat for power generation.

The generated power has numerous applications, including supporting bases on the Moon or Mars, powering space stations and deep-space vehicles, and enabling nuclear propulsion systems. These systems can include electric propulsion, like ion drives, or direct thermal nuclear rockets, where a reaction mass, such as methane, is heated to produce thrust.

This capability not only enables deep-space missions with larger payloads or faster speeds but also allows orbital satellites to rapidly change orbits for maintenance or defense. Heavy shielding isn’t required for such spacecraft because the reactor/engine can be positioned away from the payload or habitat modules using a long boom, giving the vehicle a dumbbell shape.

“We are thrilled to receive this award from the National Space Innovation Programme and to continue our partnership with the UK Space Agency,” said Jake Thompson, Director of Novel Nuclear & Special Projects at Rolls-Royce. This funding marks a crucial milestone in our Micro-Reactor program, propelling our technology forward and bringing us closer to supporting ambitious human endeavors in space.

“The future of space exploration relies heavily on generating consistent, high levels of power, and our nuclear Micro-Reactor is designed to provide safe, reliable, and versatile power for a wide array of space missions.”

Read the original article on: New Atlas

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