Canada assesses its space reactor capabilities

The Canadian Space Agency announced a request for information (RFI) seeking input from Canadian industry and academia on the country's technologies and capabilities related to lunar microreactors, aiming to identify areas where Canada has differentiated or strategically valuable capabilities.

The agency identifies fission power as complementary to solar power and batteries for lunar missions, including for exploration, mobility, and future crewed operations. The RFI aims to assess technologies that are at a technology readiness level of at least 2, which could be for a reactor or specific subsystems.

"Canada is not assuming that a single Canadian entity would design and deliver an end-to-end lunar microreactor system," states the RFI.

As a planning envelope rather than a set of requirements, the RFI describes a lunar reactor capable of producing 20 kWe-80 kWe of net continuous output, an operational lifetime of at least 10 years, predominantly autonomous capabilities, and the ability to be safely deployed, utilized, and eventually decommissioned for a moon mission.

The RFI identifies 16 areas of interest spanning the lunar microreactor supply chain, including fuel, heat transport, power conversion, radiation shielding, deployment, autonomous instrumentation, launch integration, and workforce development. The CSA requests that submissions make the case for a particular technology or architecture.

It offers a potential pathway that the CSA could establish, moving from feasibility studies to ground and flight demonstrations. The RFI seeks to identify system- and subsystem-level opportunities where Canadian organizations could contribute through domestic and international partnerships.

Canadian space nuclear: The CSA also recently funded two projects focused on radioisotope technologies, and Canada's Nuclear Innovation Institute launched the Canadian Centre for Space Isotopes.

One project is developing a tritium-fueled radioisotope heating unit to help spacecraft survive the lunar night, and the other is developing a radioisotope power system that could support spacecraft and lunar rovers in harsh environments, with the CSA's proposed lunar utility vehicle in mind.

The new center will convene specialists from the nuclear sector, space industry, and broader research community to drive research, policy development, and industry collaboration.

Moon missions: Lunar surface power has recently attracted growing international interest. Earlier this year, NASA made establishing a lunar base one of its key focus areas, and in September, the agency sought proposals for radioisotope power systems with a specific focus on Stirling generators.

For the United States, this is part of a larger push for space nuclear power, which includes developing nuclear propulsion for the Space Reactor-1 Freedom mission, which is scheduled to launch in 2028.