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Asia Times
25-04-2025
- Science
- Asia Times
US, China in hot race to put nuclear reactors on the moon
Imagine streaming your favorite show or scrolling through your phone, all from the comfort of a home base on the moon. Within the next decade, that sci-fi dream will edge closer to reality – the question is, will an American, Chinese or Russian get there first? For humans to settle and reside on the moon, scientists must solve two big problems: finding water and generating power. Now, the United States and China, with the help of Russia, are in a high-stakes race to crack the latter by building lunar nuclear reactors. Both superpowers are now pushing ahead with plans to install fission power plants on the moon's surface. America's NASA is aiming to launch its Fission Surface Power (FSP) system by the early 2030s, while China and Russia plan to build a lunar reactor between 2033 and 2035. But this is more than a race for power in space. It's a contest over who will shape the rules — and reap the benefits — of the new frontier. On April 23, a top Chinese space official publicly discussed the country's lunar nuclear ambitions for the first time. Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar exploration program, told Reuters he hopes China and Russia will jointly build a reactor to power the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), citing Russia's global leadership in nuclear space tech. 'An important question for the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) is power supply. Russia has a natural advantage when it comes to nuclear power plants, especially when sending them into space. It leads the world and it is ahead of the US,' Wu said. In previous interviews, he said China will send two unmanned spacecraft, Chang'e 7 and Chang'e 8, to the moon in 2026 and 2028, respectively. Chinese astronauts will land on the moon around 2030. He said Chang'e 7 would search for ice on the moon's South Pole while Chang'e 8 would set up telecommunication and energy systems there. He said lunar minerals can be melted at 1,400-1,500 degrees Celsius to produce bricks, which he said can be used to build houses for the ILRS project. In a presentation in Shanghai cited by Reuters, the 2028 mission's Chief Engineer Pei Zhaoyu showed that the lunar base's energy supply could also depend on large-scale solar arrays, and pipelines and cables for heating and electricity built on the moon's surface. On March 5 last year, Yury Borisov, chief executive of Russia's State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos), the main successor to the Soviet space program, said Russia and China planned to install a nuclear reactor on the moon in 2033-2035. He said the reactor would have to be built by machines, and the necessary technological solutions were almost ready. He said solar power would not be enough to support lunar settlements. Borisov stressed that Russia had no plans to send nuclear weapons to space. An academic paper said the ILRS will cover an area with a radius of up to six kilometers. The circle in the center with a radius of one kilometer will be a hub, while the main activity area will cover an area with a radius of three kilometers. While China and Russia have set a target for a lunar nuclear plant, NASA has a full roadmap. In 2022, NASA awarded three US$5 million contracts to teams led by Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse and IX (a joint venture of Intuitive Machines and X-Energy) to build the FSP reactors. They tested their preliminary designs at the Idaho National Laboratory. NASA specified that the reactor should stay under six metric tons and be able to produce 40 kilowatts (kw) of electrical power, ensuring enough for demonstration purposes and additional power available for running lunar habitats, rovers, backup grids or science experiments. In the US, 40 kw can, on average, provide electrical power for 33 households. NASA will ask the industry to design the final reactor this year. In the early 2030s, NASA will send the reactor to the moon for a one-year demonstration, followed by nine years of operation. It will then modify the reactor's design and send one to Mars. In January this year, China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIEA) researchers Shi Yunda and Zhao Shouzhi published a paper titled 'Study on nuclear design of long-life lunar surface nuclear reactor power supply based on annular fuel.' They suggested minor changes that can reduce the American FSP reactor's nuclear fuel (uranium-235) loading by 75% to 18.46 kilograms. In 2017, Zhao and another CIAE researcher, Hu Gu, co-published a paper titled 'Overview of space nuclear reactor power technology' in China's Journal of Deep Space Exploration. 'Space nuclear reactor power has clear and extensive military and civilian purposes,' they said. 'This technology is one of the disruptive technologies.' They admitted that the US and the Soviet Union had spent decades developing space-use nuclear reactors and had acquired many core technologies. They said China's development of space nuclear reactor power should be unique. The technology race on the moon is an extension of the geopolitical fight on Earth. In October 2020, NASA launched the Artemis Accords, an international initiative to promote safe and sustainable space exploration. Fifty-four nations, including developed and emerging countries, have signed the accords. In March 2021, China and Russia signed a Memorandum of Understanding to construct the ILRS. The duo planned to build the basic model of a permanent base on the moon by 2035 and an extended model in the 2040s. So far, 17 countries and more than 50 international research institutions have joined the ILRS, mostly Russian and Chinese allies in the Global South. The European Space Agency (ESA) ruled out joining the ILRS after Russia invaded Ukraine. 'The ILRS' development trend is very good, but compared to the United States' Artemis Accords, ours is much smaller in terms of countries because the US is always interfering in our cooperation with other countries, including Europe,' Wu told foreign media on April 23, without elaborating on the allegation. Before this, Beijing had repeatedly criticized the US for passing the Wolf Amendment in 2011, which prohibited NASA from partnering with Chinese institutions. In the past decade, China has pushed its lunar exploration program and sought support from Russia to boost its space technologies. However, Russia has reportedly been reluctant to share its rocket engines and nuclear technologies with China. Russia faced a significant space race setback in August 2023 when its Luna-25 spacecraft crashed on the moon's surface. Bian Zhigang, deputy director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), said on April 23 that lunar exploration activities are evolving from short-term missions to long-term construction, from single-craft exploration to multi-craft collaboration and from national missions to international cooperation. Bian said the modes of exploration and cooperation are undergoing fundamental changes. He added that the ILRS will offer new opportunities and platforms for fostering global intelligence integration, technological innovation, inclusive cooperation and shared development. Read: China and SpaceX envision reaching Mars in different ways
Daily News Egypt
15-03-2025
- Science
- Daily News Egypt
Egyptian Space Agency unveils ambitious satellite projects, international partnerships
The Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA) is embarking on ambitious new satellite projects and expanding international collaborations, as announced during the agency's 10th Board of Directors meeting chaired by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly. The Saturday meeting, held at EgSA headquarters in New Cairo, reviewed recent achievements and future plans, focusing on developing local space technology capabilities, fostering African cooperation, and contributing to development-focused space projects. Among the key projects discussed were the development of a satellite to measure plasma characteristics in the ionosphere and the African Development Satellite project. The latter, part of an Egyptian initiative, involves developing a nanosatellite to monitor climate change impacts in collaboration with several African countries. A partnership with Bahrain to develop a hyperspectral imaging camera for China's Chang'e 7 lunar mission was also highlighted. Egypt will host the New Space Africa 2025 conference in partnership with the African Space Agency, solidifying its leading role in the African space sector. The conference aims to boost continental cooperation in space and promote joint policies and strategies. EgSA's training programmes for African specialists, with 71 engineers from 34 countries trained since 2021, further demonstrate this commitment. Prime Minister Madbouly commended EgSA's progress since his last visit, highlighting the agency's vital role in achieving national sustainable development goals through space technology. He emphasised the importance of utilising the agency's applications going forward. Egyptian Space Agency CEO Sherif Sedky provided a comprehensive report on recent achievements, including successful missions like EgyptSat 2 and NexSat 1. The board addressed international collaborations, including agreements with the Greek and Kenyan space agencies, as well as academic partnerships and collaborations with international companies for technology transfer. A key initiative is the development of an Egyptian microsatellite platform to boost local manufacturing capabilities by 2026. The meeting concluded with a review of EgSA's pursuit of ISO AS9100 quality certification and the approval of its 2025/2026 budget. These efforts underscore Egypt's dedication to establishing itself as a regional hub for space science and technology innovation. The meeting was attended by Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat, Egyptian Space Agency CEO Sherif Sedky, Academy of Scientific Research President Gina El-Feky, and representatives of various ministries and agencies. It followed a tour of the EgSA facilities by the prime minister.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Crater-diving hopper 'Gracie' will launch to the moon aboard private Athena lander this month
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A SpaceX launch later this month will send a new type of lunar explorer to the moon. IM-2, the second moon mission by Houston company Intuitive Machines, will lift off from Florida's Space Coast during a four-day window that opens on Feb. 26. If all goes to plan, Athena will land on a plateau just 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the moon's south pole. This region is thought to be rich in water ice, and IM-2 will prospect for the precious resource with the help of some ride-along robots, including a pioneering hopper nicknamed Gracie. Gracie is a joint effort of Intuitive Machines and NASA, which contributed $41 million toward the development of the 77-pound (35-kilogram) robot. The little explorer is named after Grace Hopper, a pioneering computer scientist and mathematician who died in 1992. Related: Intuitive Machines lands on moon in nail-biting descent of private Odysseus lander, a 1st for US since 1972 Gracie will deploy from Athena and perform a total of five hops, using its thrusters to launch itself across the lunar surface. These leaps will get progressively higher; the first will reach a maximum of 65 feet (20 meters), for example, and the second will get up to 165 ft (50 m), said Trent Martin, senior vice president of space systems at Intuitive Machines. "And on the third hop, we go about 100 meters [330 feet] in altitude," Martin said in a NASA press conference on Friday (Feb. 7). "We'll hop down into a permanently shadowed crater." That target crater, known as Crater H, lies about 1,650 ft (500 m) from Athena's landing site and is about 65 ft (20 m) deep, he added. Intuitive Machines hopes to maintain communications with the hopper while it's on the crater floor using another IM-2 payload, Nokia's Lunar Surface Communication System, which will set up the first-ever 4G/LTE network on the moon. Even if Gracie goes as dark as its surroundings, however, it should still be able to hop back out into the light: It's designed to do so after 45 minutes, or when surrounding temperatures reach a certain minimum, Martin said. No hopper has ever explored the moon before (though China also intends to launch one next year, on its Chang'e 7 lunar mission). So, Gracie is mainly a technology demonstration, which aims "to show that we can reach extreme environments with technologies other than rovers," Martin said. "The idea is that, if you have a really deep crater and you want to get down into that crater, why not do it with something like a drone?" he added. (One actual drone has flown on Mars to date — NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, which performed 72 flights on the Red Planet between April 2021 and January 2024.) That being said, Gracie will gather potentially useful data, using an onboard "water snooper" instrument to scout for the resource in its surroundings. The hopper also sports some cameras, so we could get clear views of its lunar leaps. More serious prospecting work will be performed by IM-2's primary payload, NASA's Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1, or PRIME-1 for short. (The IM-2 mission is part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS, which puts NASA science gear on private moon landers.) PRIME-1 consists of two instruments: a drill that will grab samples from up to 3.3 feet (1 m) underground and a mass spectrometer, which will analyze those samples for the presence of water and other interesting compounds. Also flying to the moon on Athena is MAPP ("Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform"), a 22-pound (10-kg) rover built by the Colorado company Lunar Outpost. MAPP will carry payloads of its own — for example, high-resolution optical and thermal cameras, which scientists will use to create detailed 3D imagery of the polar region that MAPP will explore. MAPP will also collect lunar regolith as part of a contract with NASA. And it will tote on its top a much smaller rover — an "AstroAnt," a prototype swarm robot developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose four magnetic wheels will keep it from sliding off MAPP's top. AstroAnt will gather temperature data as its larger cousin trundles across the gray dirt. The Athena lander will tote yet another tech-demonstrating robot to the moon as well — the 17.6-ounce (498-gram) Yaoki rover, which was built by Japanese company Dymon. RELATED STORIES: — SpaceX launches 2 private lunar landers to the moon (video, photos) — NASA gives Intuitive Machines $117 million for 2027 mission to moon's south pole — Private Odysseus moon lander broke a leg during historic touchdown (new photos) If all goes to plan, Athena will touch down on March 6 and operate on the lunar surface for about 10 Earth days. Its operational life will end shortly after the sun sets at its polar locale, depriving the solar-powered lander of life-giving light. Intuitive Machines made history with its first moon mission, IM-1, which sent the Odysseus lander to Earth's nearest neighbor in February 2024: Odysseus pulled off the first-ever soft lunar landing by a privately built spacecraft. (That landing didn't go entirely to plan, however; Odysseus came in too hard, broke a landing leg and tipped partway onto its side.) Two other private landers are currently on their way to the moon — Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost, which is also part of the CLPS program, and Resilience, built by Tokyo-based ispace. They launched together on a Falcon 9 on Jan. 15.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Hopping robot will hunt for moon water on China's Chang'e 7 lunar mission in 2026
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. China is preparing to launch a pioneering mission to the moon next year to search for definitive evidence of water at the lunar south pole. The Chang'e 7 mission will consist of a lander, a rover and a mobile hopper, according to Chinese state media outlet Xinhua, and will launch sometime in 2026. The hopper is a "first-of-its-kind lunar explorer," according to the report. It will jump from sunlit areas and into shadowed craters to look for water using a molecule analyzer. "The lander will deploy China's inaugural deep-space 'landmark image navigation' system to ensure precision, while the hopper utilizes active shock-absorption technology to safely land on slopes," the report read. Related: China plans to plant a waving flag on the moon in 2026. Here's how Discovering ice in shadowed craters on the moon would be a breakthrough for lunar exploration, promising resources in-situ that could be used in numerous ways, including for supplies for astronauts or propellant for rockets and spacecraft. The Chang'e 7 mission will target Shackleton Crater, according to a 2024 report from SpaceNews. The mission rover will be built on China's earlier Yutu ("Jade Rabbit") moon rovers, but will be larger and designed to carry different payloads. Chang'e 7 will also be supported by the Queqiao 2 lunar relay satellite, which last year facilitated the complex Chang'e 6 lunar far side sample-return effort. Related stories: — Are we prepared for Chinese preeminence on the moon and Mars? (op-ed) — China returns samples from the moon's far side in historic 1st (video) — The moon: Everything you need to know about Earth's companion Chang'e 7 is one of two missions planned by China as part of grander ambitions for a lunar base. Chang'e 8 is set to launch around 2028 and will test out in-situ resource utilization and could include a humanoid robot. Following this, China plans to construct the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) in the 2030s. NASA is also planning to send a mobile spacecraft, the VIPER rover, to hunt for water at the lunar south pole. The agency is now seeking commercial partners to help revive the once-cancelled mission. VIPER data could prove valuable to the wider Artemis program led by NASA.
BBC News
07-02-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Six-legged Flying robot to be sent on a mission to the moon
China have plans to send a six-legged flying robot on a mission to the robot, which is planned to make its journey next year, is being sent to search for frozen water which could be important in future human space will be sent to the lunar south pole as part of China's Chang'e 7 mission. The Chang'e 7 mission aims to bring China closer to landing astronauts on the Moon within five years. The robot is unlike other rovers that have been sent to space in that it is capable of crawling, jumping, and hope this means it will be able to reach regions that were previously inaccessible. With its ability to leap, it the robot will try to reach craters where frozen water may have remained for billions of years. If the robot is able to find ice on the Moon it could help sustain human life there one day and could help future missions. The robot, which will in part be charged by solar power, also has cameras and scientific tools to analyse the goal is to build a permanent research station on the Moon, and this robot is seen as the next step on that journey.
