From the Technology Review, published by MIT:
“Tests prove the feasibility of using nuclear reactors to provide electricity on the moon and Mars.
“Researchers at NASA and the Department of Energy recently tested key technologies for developing a nuclear fission reactor that could power a human outpost on the moon or Mars. The tests prove that the agencies could build a "safe, reliable, and efficient" system by 2020, the year NASA plans to return humans to the moon.
“Nuclear power is being considered for lunar and Mars missions because, unlike alternatives such as solar power, it can provide constant energy, a necessity for human life-support systems, recharging rovers, and mining for resources. Solar power systems would also require the use of energy storage devices like batteries or fuel cells, adding unwanted mass to the system. Solar power is further limited because the moon is dark for up to 14 days at a time and has deep craters that can obscure the sun. Mars is farther away from the sun than either the Earth or the moon, so less solar power can be harvested there.
“To generate electricity, the researchers used a liquid metal to transfer the heat from the reactor to the Stirling engine.
“’They are very efficient and robust, and we believe [it] can last for eight years unattended,’ says Lee mason, the principal investigator of the project”
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