Quote:Government signs £2.9m Moon base nuclear power deal with Rolls-Royce

'Rolls-Royce scientists and engineers are to research how nuclear power could be used to support a future Moon base.
The UK Space Agency has given the Derby-based firm £2.9m to look at ways of powering future lunar settlements.
The company has been asked to demonstrate how nuclear micro reactors could extend the duration of future missions
to the Moon.

They say you don't need an umbrella up there, but we'll see. It's the antigravity tea that bothers me.


The government said the deal would boost the UK's space industry and create skilled jobs.

The UK Space Agency said it wanted to establish a new power source to support systems for communications,
life-support and scientific experiments on the Moon. The agency's chief executive Dr Paul Bate said: "We are
backing technology and capabilities to support ambitious space exploration missions and boost sector growth
across the UK.

"Developing space nuclear power offers a unique chance to support innovative technologies and grow our nuclear,
science and space engineering skills base. "This innovative research by Rolls-Royce could lay the groundwork for
powering continuous human presence on the Moon, while enhancing the wider UK space sector, creating jobs and
generating further investment." Rolls-Royce said it wanted to have a reactor ready to send to the Moon by 2029.

The company will work with the University of Oxford, University of Bangor, University of Brighton, University of
Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and Nuclear AMRC on the project. The Minister of
State at the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, George Freeman, said: "Space exploration is the
ultimate laboratory for so many of the transformational technologies we need on Earth, from materials to robotics,
nutrition, cleantech and much more.

"As we prepare to see humans return to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, we are backing exciting
research like this lunar modular reactor with Rolls-Royce to pioneer new power sources for a lunar base." Director
of future programmes for Rolls-Royce Abi Clayton said: "The new tranche of funding from the UK Space Agency
means so much for the Rolls-Royce Micro-Reactor Programme.

"It will bring us further down the road in making the micro-reactor a reality, with the technology bringing immense
benefits for both space and Earth."...'

(03-18-2023, 04:39 AM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote: Christ, a moon base populated by gap toothed, pompous and arrogant Brits! "God save the Queen!" They used to say the sun never sets on the British Empire, well, I guess the moon will never set on it either now.

(03-18-2023, 04:39 AM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote: Christ, a moon base populated by gap toothed, pompous and arrogant Brits! "God save the Queen!" They used to say the sun never sets on the British Empire, well, I guess the moon will never set on it either now.

(03-18-2023, 10:55 AM)727Sky Wrote: "They used to say the sun never sets on the British Empire", That is because God does not trust the Brits in the dark...
or so I have been told !

Quote:Bill Gates’s Nuclear Firm Collaborated With Chinese Military Proxy (July 24, 2020)

The Microsoft billionaire chairs a nuclear power initiative working alongside a Chinese energy company deemed a military asset by the U.S. government. Gates has also extolled China’s economic exploitation of Africa as “valuable” and “beneficial.”

But Gates’s ties to the CCP are not limited to merely rhetoric: Terrapower, a nuclear energy research company founded and chaired by him works with China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), a wholly government-funded and administered company.

“TerraPower, the company I started 10 years ago, uses an approach called a traveling wave reactor that is safe, prevents proliferation, and produces very little waste. We had hoped to build a pilot project in China, but recent policy changes here in the U.S. have made that unlikely. We may be able to build it in the United States if the funding and regulatory changes that I mentioned earlier happen.”

Quote:TerraPower to Leave China, but Bill Gates is Still in the Game

TerraPower’s chief financial officer, Marcia Burkey said in a statement to the news media that October’s announcement of the new export restrictions caught the company “by complete surprise.”

The decision to end the work in China follows a new set of U.S. government rules on export of nuclear technology to China. The rules were issued in October 2018 in response to repeated instances by China of stealing intellectual property related to nuclear energy from U.S. firms.

“We’re regrouping,” Chief Executive Chris Levesque told the Wall Street Journal in an interview. “Maybe we can find another partner.”

Quote:Nuclear power plants could make Mars, the moon your next neighborhood

The Energy Department wants the private sector to build nuclear power plants that would allow us to live in the harsh conditions of the red plant and the orb of the night. The target date for the first one: the end of 2026.