A concept model of a micronuclear reactor that Rolls-Royce intends to launch to the moon has been made public.

The initiative, supported by a £2.9 million ($3.6 million) contract from the UK Space Agency, is to give astronauts who create moon colonies in the near future a dependable power source.

“With the help of our Space Micro-Reactor Concept Model, we can show how this technology will benefit Earth and space,” said Rolls-Royce’s director of future programs, Abi Clayton, in a statement released on Friday.

In late November, the model was shown at the UK Space Conference in Belfast, UK.

According to Rolls-Royce, the reactor won’t be ready to travel to the moon for another six years.

The company stated in the statement that Rolls-Royce “plans to have a reactor ready to send to the moon by the early 2030s.”

The development of micronuclear reactors could provide the moon with much-needed energy sources for long-term habitation. With a power output of fewer than 50 megawatts, these scaled power plants are far smaller than the nuclear reactors that power the power grids (compared to around 1 gigawatt per full-scale plant).

Microreactors, despite their different designs, work on essentially the same principles as their larger counterparts: radiation from decaying nuclear fuel generates heat, which drives a turbine, pistons, or other heat-generating devices to generate electricity.
A number of space agencies intend to make a moon landing within the next ten years; NASA intends to send people to the moon as early as 2024.

Establishing lunar colonies is the longer-term strategy that could enable astronauts to remain on the moon for extended periods of time.

Bringing the means of daily subsistence to the moon is known as colonization. As previously reported by Business Insider, this includes a dependable energy supply for tasks like drilling, heating, refrigeration, rover charging, and more.

Although solar energy can be generated on the moon, it is not always dependable. For example, dust can block the solar panels and prevent equipment from being powered in locations with shade. On the other hand, a small nuclear reactor can provide consistent, dependable electricity.
There are other businesses than Rolls Royce that are trying to create a tiny reactor for a space agency.

Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse, and IX—a joint venture between Intuitive Machines and X-Energy—were given contracts by NASA in 2022 to create initial designs for a 40-kilowatt class nuclear fission power system that could survive at least ten years on the moon. The approximate value of each contract was $5 million.

Previously, NASA created the Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology (or KRUSTy), a concept nuclear reactor.

During testing in 2018, KRUSTy produced up to 4 kW at a temperature of 800 °C for several hours, demonstrating that a small-scale nuclear fission power system might provide enough energy to support a tiny colony on the moon.
There was no need for a waste disposal strategy because the idea was to be safely launched on a rocket to the moon and then abandoned after the fuel ran out. Instead, the waste could remain in the reactor and gradually lose its radioactivity.
Following the demonstration of the model’s functionality by KRUSTy, NASA contacted commercial companies to begin internal design development.

The ultimate goal, like many technologies being explored to enhance the infrastructure surrounding the moon, is much farther away.

According to Todd Tofil, the project manager for Fission Surface Power at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, “this could also be a stepping stone to develop the technology and the experience that we could then take to Mars,” as BI was informed 2022.