Welsh scientists have designed nuclear fuel cells, the size of poppy seeds, to produce the energy needed to sustain astronauts living on the Moon for long periods of time.
The BBC reports that the team at Bangor University’s Nuclear Futures Institute’s laboratory has sent the tiny nuclear fuel cell, known as a Trisofuel, to their partners for testing. The Bangor institute’s partners include Rolls Royce, the UK Space Agency, NASA and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US.
The NASA-led Artemis Program hopes for an outpost on the Moon by around 2030. According to the BBC, the Moon, which is seen by some to be the gateway to Mars, contains a lot of valuable resources needed for modern technology.
But sustaining life on the Moon is a challenge, in part because, on parts of the Moon, temperatures plummet to lows of 248 Degrees C, because it has no atmosphere to warm up the surface.
Bangor’s Professor Simon Middleburgh says the team’s Trisofuel cell could be used to power a micro nuclear generator, created by Rolls Royce. He is quoted as saying that the generator is a portable device, the size of a small car and ‘something you can stick on a rocket’.