http://www.dsti.net/News/55386.htm
NASA計畫在月球建立核能基地
[據yahoo網站2009年8月6日報導] 美國國家航空和宇宙航行局（NASA）對開發一種新型反應堆進行了一系列重大研究，這可為人類在月球或火星的基地提供動力。
在NASA的幾個研究中心和國家實驗室，最近進行了三次試驗，成功驗證了研製用於人類在其他世界定居的緊湊型裂變核能設備的重要技術。
NASA位於俄亥俄州克利夫蘭市的Glenn研究中心"月表裂變動力專案"經理Don Palac在一項聲明中說，"最近技術開發的連續成功，證實了月表裂變動力專案是一條正確的路線。"
NASA目前的人類空間探險計畫是，在2020年再次將宇航員送上月球，這些任務的目的是對月表進行永久性的前哨探險和測試有助於載人火星任務的技術。(核信息院 楊力)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090806/sc_space/nasastepsclosertonuclearpowerformoonbase
NASA Steps Closer to Nuclear Power for Moon Base
Tariq Malik
Managing Editor
space.com – Thu Aug 6, 6:45 pm ET
NASA has made a series of critical strides in developing new nuclear reactors the size of a trash can that could power a human outpost on the moon or Mars.
Three recent tests at different NASA centers and a national lab have successfully demonstrated key technologies required for compact fission-based nuclear power plants for human settlements on other worlds.
"This recent string of technology development successes confirms that the fission surface power project is on the right path," said Don Palac, NASA's fission surface power project manager at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, in a statement.
Power on the moon
NASA's current plan for human space exploration is to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 on sortie missions that could lead to a permanent outpost for exploring the lunar surface and testing technologies that could aid a manned mission to Mars.
The space agency has been studying the feasibility of using nuclear fission power plants to support future moon bases. Engineers performed tests in recent weeks as part of a joint effort by NASA and the Department of Energy.
Nuclear fission power plants work by splitting the nuclei of atoms in a sustainable, controllable reaction that releases heat, which can then be funneled through a power converter to transfer that energy into usable electricity.
A small fission-based nuclear reactor coupled with a Sterling engine could provide up to 40 kilowatts of usable energy, enough to support a moon base or Mars outpost, project scientists said. That's about the same amount of power needed to supply eight houses on Earth, NASA officials have said.
Key milestones
In one of the recent tests, Palac's team subjected a lightweight radiator panel prototype to the vacuum conditions it would experience in space, as well as extreme cold (minus 125 degrees Celsius, or about minus 193 degrees Fahrenheit). The radiator is about 6 feet wide and 9 feet long, and one of 20 that would be required to keep a lunar fission reactor cool, project officials said.
For comparison, the four giant solar arrays on the International Space Station can generate up to 120 kilowatts of usable power - about the equivalent to support 42 average-sized homes. They extend from a main truss as long as football field and make the space station easily visible at night on Earth to the unaided human eye.
A second fission power milestone included pumping molten liquid metal through a Sterling engine, an engine driven by heat, to simulate how heat from a nuclear reactor could be shunted to a converter to generate power. The test was carried out at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The third test bombarded a Stirling engine alternator with radiation, up to 20 times the cumulative dose allowed for today's fission power plants on Earth, to see how it would hold up. It passed with flying colors, NASA officials said. Engineers performed the 26-hour endurance test at the Sandia National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M.
"The pace of progress exhibited by these three achievements in the same time period is exciting," said Lee Mason, NASA's principal investigator for fission surface power at the Glenn Research Center. "It has built the team's confidence and prepared them for challenges that lay ahead."
The next step for NASA's fission power project is to combine its radiator, engine and alternator successes into a single non-nuclear power plant demonstration. That test is slated to begin in 2012, NASA officials said.
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