Extra-terrestrial nuclear power stations : transportation and operation

Many challenges exist when considering nuclear power to provide electricity for bases on the Moon or Mars, including launch safety, landing safety, deployment, control, and protecting the astronauts from radiation. Examples from the past provide guidance in these areas but surface operations on another body have never been attempted and rarely studied. This thesis discusses the risks and design considerations for launching, transporting, landing, and operating a nuclear fission reactor on the Moon or Mars. A reference mission and reactor were chosen to facilitate analysis in these areas. Launching a reactor involves meeting environmental and federal regulations. This includes an extensive safety analysis of launch to determine if launch accidents pose a serious risk to the public due to fuel release or inadvertent criticality. The reactor must also be able to survive the launch conditions without damage. Transport mainly involves protecting the reactor from damage from meteoroids. The reactor will then land through propulsive means on the Moon or Mars. Landing a reactor will also require a safety analysis to determine the consequences of a landing accident on the Moon or Mars. On the surface, the reactor must be at a location far enough away from the astronauts to limit radiation exposure to the astronauts from the reactor.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Kane, Susan Christine

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jeffrey A. Hoffman.

• Nuclear Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34444

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34444