Rolls-Royce develops a nuclear reactor for future lunar bases

British industrial group rolls royce announced on Friday that it has received funding of 2.9 million pounds sterling (€3.3 million, US$3.5 million) from the British space agency to develop small nuclear reactors on future lunar bases.

“Rolls-Royce scientists and engineers are working on the microjet program to develop technology that will provide humans with the energy they need to live and work on the Moon”the company said in a statement.

The group anticipates that a first reactor will be ready to be sent to the Moon by 2029. It will have the size of a vehicle.

“Nuclear power has the potential to greatly increase the duration of future lunar missions and their scientific value”assured Rolls-Royce, which will work with several British universities, such as Oxford in the United Kingdom.

The funding announced this Friday is in addition to the £249,000 from the British Space Agency announced in 2022. The goal is to allow the company to make a first demonstration of a lunar nuclear reactor.

Rolls-Royce is also developing small modular reactors to produce electricity as part of the UK’s plans to speed up construction of new nuclear power plants on its soil.

The British space agency, which depends on the Government, recently failed in its first attempt to launch a rocket into space, placed on a Boeing 747 Virgin Orbit Company

The launch was affected by an “anomaly” that prevented the rocket from being put into orbit and was carried out within the framework of a consortium that brings together the British space agency and other companies.

The return of humans to the Moon takes place 50 years after the last mission of the Apollo Program. NASA, the space agency of USAannounced in March that the Artemis 2 space mission would carry a crew of astronauts around the satellite in 2024, for the first time since 1972.

Source: AFP Agency.