The Artemis II crew will take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in February and head toward the moon, where they will circle it and return home. It is the first step in taking boots to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
It’s not just about planting a flag and picking up a few rocks, as happened during the space race in the 1960s. NASA’s ambitious Artemis program has the long-term goal of exploring the moon, with continued human presence. And from there to Mars.
To maintain a presence on the Moon, energy will be necessary. So how do you maintain a colony of people in a place that has approximately 14 days of sunlight followed by 14 days of darkness?
The answer: nuclear energy. And Canada is looking to take a step forward.
Earlier this month, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) awarded $1 million in funding for the Canadian Space Mining Corporation (CSMC) to develop a low-enriched uranium nuclear reactor to be used on the Moon.
When we think of nuclear reactors, we usually think of large buildings or steam towers like those seen in The Simpsons.
But there are also small modular reactors that are assembled in a factory and transported to a location.
And then there are modular microreactors, like the ones CSMC intends to build, which are much smaller.
How far-fetched is the idea of having nuclear reactors on the moon?
“The idea of using nuclear power in space more generally is not really new. So if we go back to the Cold War, the The Russians were up to things with nuclear reactors in space.”said Kirk Atkinson, associate chair of industrial research in the department of nuclear energy and engineering at Ontario Technological University in Oshawa.
“NASA has been working on it. for a decade or more, and they’ve done demonstration experiments in the US where they make a small reactor and it behaves the way you expect it to behave.”
Canada in a unique position
Canada is not the only country competing to build a nuclear reactor that could be used on the Moon.
In August, NASA announced that it is seeking put a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030five years before China and Russia’s plans for their joint reactor.
So why is Canada aiming to have a reactor on the Moon? when it doesn’t even have the ability to launch a rocket from its territory (yet).
“The international community is working together to establish a permanent presence on the moon,” said Daniel Sax, founder and CEO of the Canadian Space Mining Corporation. “Jeremy Hansen will be on the next flight to the moon and Canada is looking to contribute to the international effort as it has done in the past.”
Canada has a long Although somewhat muted, the story of contributions to space exploration, with the Canadarms and the technology that has flown to distant asteroids and Mars.
MDA Space, which built Canadarms, also recently received $500,000 from the CSA for the “development of autonomous plant management tools and algorithms for a nuclear power system on the lunar surface.”
“Canada is really good at space technology. We are also very good at nuclear energy,” Sax said. “So we’ve been working on this, looking to leverage both skills.”
Sax says this type of reactor is not limited to the moon. The company plans to use similar technology in remote and indigenous communities, many of which still use diesel.
Lunar challenges
The lunar reactor would be built here on Earth and then sent to the moon, Sax explained. It would operate partly autonomously and partly under supervision here on Earth.
But Atkinson said building a reactor to operate on the Moon (which has no atmosphere, where water would freeze and where there is low gravity) will have its challenges. Water or even air cannot be used to cool the reactor.
Then there is the question of what to do with the spent fuel.
“We’re going to have to think about nuclear waste disposal. I suspect that’s probably one of the last things they’ll think about,” said Jamie Noel, a chemistry professor at western university in London, Ontario. “[But] “We have to start with the design of the reactor.”
There is also the regulatory side.
Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen heads to the moon on the Artemis II mission. He sits down with CBC’s Nicole Mortillaro to talk about the physical, mental and collaborative part of training to reach the furthest place humanity has ever gone.
“Legal questions aside, who really is the regulator of anything on the moon? In Canada, it’s the…Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission,” Noel said. “He [Atomic Energy of Canada] I tried this idea of an autonomous reactor. About once a month, they sent a technician there to check things. And the CNSC flatly said no.”
It remains to be seen whether that will be the case for the moon or not.
Sax, whose company is also researching ways to get water from the Moon, is excited about the future of human exploration and says she is hopeful that the company’s micromodular nuclear reactors can be used in remote communities, not just in Canada, but around the world.
“I think humans will continue to explore no matter what,” he said. “AND “I think if we can enable that exploration, but also at the same time… bring real economic value to people’s lives here (real environmental value) and solve some of the biggest problems we have in Canada, I think that’s an incredible thing to work on.”
