THE ROLLS-ROYCE OF LUNAR NUCLEAR REACTORS

MICRO-REACTOR COULD POWER MISSIONS ON THE MOON AND BEYOND 

- DAMIEN MARTIN

It’s one of those sentences you have to read a few times to fully process. “Rolls-Royce today announces it has secured funding from UK Space Agency, as it backs research by Rolls-Royce into how nuclear power could be used to support a future moon base for astronauts,” the company announced in March.

The first thing to know is that this Rolls-Royce is a completely separate entity from Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the name synonymous with luxury automaking which has been owned by BMW since 2003. This Rolls-Royce focuses on civil aerospace, defense, and power systems and has been a nuclear energy pioneer for six decades.

The second is that the UK Space Agency announced £51 million ($63.4 million) in funding available for UK companies to develop communication and navigation services for moon missions as part of humanity’s return to the moon. Missions this decade will lay the groundwork for using the moon as a base to reach deeper space.

Now that we have our heads around that sentence, let’s dive deeper into what has the potential to be a very cool development.

THE MOON