Nuclear Powered Bases

NASA is making progress in developing small fission reactors that could power manned bases on the Moon and Mars. Tests on three separate elements of the system, performed jointly by NASA and the U. S. Department of Energy, were all successful. One of the projected reactors would generate enough energy to power eight American homes-- enough for a small outpost. A suite of the reactors, then, would presumably power a larger base.

NASA's current plan is to establish a lunar base near the south pole, partly because mountains there would give the base access to continuous solar power; some peaks are high enough to be in constant sunlight. Fission reactors the size of trash cans would open the entire lunar surface to bases. For example, the early Apollo missions landed on the relatively flat plains near the equator because that was the easiest place to reach. A commercially-oriented settlement intending to trade with Earth could have a preference for the equatorial region to simplify the flight aspect of that trade. Reliable fission power could make such sites reasonable.

One more factor: as was noted in this blog, it was recently reported that Japan's Kaguya lunar probe found uranium on the Moon. Uranium is the preferred fuel for fission reactors. The basis for a lunar economy may be slowly beginning to emerge.