Nuclear power plant on the moon: millions in funding for Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce is currently developing special Small Modular Reactors to build a nuclear power plant on the moon. The British space agency supports the project with a sum of millions.

How will human life change in the future? Numerous researchers and companies are investigating this question. The moon seems to play a major role in this. The United States is planning another visit to the celestial body in 2024.

The foundation stone for the first lunar colonies may then already be laid. But how could such branches be supplied with electricity in the first place? The British company Rolls-Royce has now presented a solution and wants to build a nuclear power plant on the moon. The British space agency is promising millions in funding for this.

Nuclear power plant on the moon: Rolls-Royce builds reactors

The reactor should in turn ensure the energy supply on the moon. But the development of such projects costs a lot of money. For this reason, the British Space Agency is now supporting the project. According to reports, 2.9 million British pounds (about 3.28 million euros) will initially go to Rolls-Royce.

In the first step, Rolls-Royce is researching to what extent a nuclear reactor on the moon can generate heat. The operation of lunar vehicles, communication systems and research experiments is also planned. If everything goes according to plan, the group would like to send a first prototype to the moon by 2029.

Previous focus: chemical fuels

So far, many projects have relied on chemical fuels when it came to the energy supply on foreign planets. Nuclear power offers huge potential, as recently discovered by the American space agency NASA. Rolls-Royce should benefit from such reactors in the long term and already has some experience.

Because Rolls-Royce has been developing nuclear submarines for over 60 years. The technology is used worldwide and is very popular. It was not until 2021 that the company raised over 678 million euros as part of a financing round. So it remains exciting to see what the interplanetary energy storage system of the future will look like.

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